dingo love

Dingo Love: Rules of the Road

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Love Is Following the Rules of the Road

Love is Following the Rules of the Road.

Love is Following the Rules of the Road.

Once upon a time, The Dingo heard a loud commotion outside his home. So he ran outside to investigate. As he walked across his yard to the sidewalk, he could see a crowd gathered in the middle of the road and  a lot of yelling going on.

“You shouldn’t of been speeding!” yelled Mrs. Bear.

“Well, your kid shouldn’t of been running out into the middle of the road!” yelled Mr. Gus.

Thankfully, little Lucky Bear was unharmed in the incident. It seems that on his walk home from school, Lucky Bear decided not to cross the street where the crossing guard was stationed and instead decided to break the rules of the road and cross where he wanted. To make things worse, Mr. Gus was also breaking the rules of the road. He was running late for an appointment so he was driving way faster than the posted speed limit. Luckily, for both of them, he noticed the little guy in enough time to come to a screeching halt barely avoiding an accident. Neighbors, along with Mrs. Bear, who had seen the incident were gathered around to make sure Lucky Bear was okay.

As the bickering continued over who’s fault it was, The Dingo decided to interject: “We ALL need to learn and obey the rules of the road. It doesn’t matter if we are walking or driving or young or old. Mistakes will happen because no one is perfect and the rules are made to protect everyone.” The crowd nodded in agreement as The Dingo spoke.

Both Lucky Bear and Mr. Gus broke the rules and someone could of gotten very hurt. They both apologized and both promised to do a better job of following the rules of the road.

The Dingo knew that while many were aware of the rules, many were not. He decided to invite everyone, children and adults alike, for a potluck dinner the next day in order to help raise awareness regarding the rules of the road to make the streets in their town safer. He contacted his local city government & arranged to get some informational brochures regarding the rules of the road. He handed those out to everyone in attendance.

Many topics were covered during the gathering including: sharing the road, pedestrian & bicycle safety, and defensive driving techniques, just to name a few.

It was a lot of work but The Dingo knows that following the rules of the road is very important and it can save someone’s life. This is just another way for people to walk in love towards each other and he is more than happy to help anyway he can.

Y.C.Lozano ©2014

The Dingo Walks in Love is a project that teaches lesson in love with the power of art, social media, books, pubic art, & random acts of kindness.

Dingo Love: Self-Love

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Love is Practicing Self-Love

Self Love WATERMARK

To purchase a print of this image, click the pic to visit my Fine Art America store.

Once upon a time The Dingo noticed he wasn’t really himself anymore. He started to feel worn down, exhausted and just plain tapped out. He was still exercising & eating right, but something was definitely off. “Maybe I’m coming down with a cold,” thought The Dingo, “I better make an appointment with Dr. Bear, just to be sure.”

With his appointment made and hope in his heart for a speedy recovery, The Dingo made his way out the door and to the doctor’s office.

“Well hello there Dingo! What brings you in today?” asked Dr. Bear as he walked into the exam room. The Dingo went on to explain his strange symptoms as Dr. Bear listened intently.

After a full check up, Dr. Bear couldn’t find anything physically wrong with The Dingo. No fever. No infection. Not even a sniffle, but he could tell that something was bothering his patient. After all, The Dingo was very well known around town. His purpose to walk in love was talked about all the time and word spread quickly about how giving and thoughtful he was. It was rare to see him not smiling or full of life as a result of his actions.

Dr. Bear had a gut feeling about what could be wrong with The Dingo, so he asked him, “When was the last time you walked in love towards yourself?”

The Dingo was confused by the question and asked “What do you mean?”

“Well,” said Dr. Bear, “as important as it is to walk in love towards others, it’s equally important to walk in love towards yourself. If you are always giving of yourself, but never taking the time to refill yourself with the same energy and love you show others, you eventually start running on empty.” Dr. Bear went on to tell The Dingo about a renowned psychologist & social philosopher named Erich Fromm that said that loving oneself was important in order to love others properly. It’s called self-love.

Dr. Bear went ahead & wrote his patient a prescription for a day of rest and relaxation which was to be taken as needed.

It never dawned on The Dingo that part of his purpose to walk in love towards others meant that he had to also purpose to walk in love towards himself. Having this realization made The Dingo start feeling better almost immediately.

As The Dingo gathered his things and thanked Dr. Bear for his help, he couldn’t help but walk away with a skip in his step and a smile on his face as he made plans for a day of rest and relaxation. Per doctor’s orders, of course.

Walk in Love.

Y.C.Lozano ©2014

The Dingo Walks in Love is a project that teaches lesson in love with the power of art, social media, books, pubic art, & random acts of kindness.

 

 

Dingo Love: Not Jealous

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To purchase a print of Love is not Jealous, check out my Fine Art America Store by clicking on the pic above.

To purchase a print of Love is not Jealous, check out my Fine Art America Store by clicking on the pic above.

 

Love is not Jealous

Once upon a time, The Dingo and little Max were really looking forward to the fall season. Not only would there be a cool breeze in the air and beautiful color changes in the trees, but it also meant it was time for the Annual Great Pumpkin Contest in their town. The winner of this prestigious contest not only won a fancy blue ribbon and a pair of free movie tickets, but they also got their picture in the local paper with their prize winning pumpkin.

Several months earlier they spent a lot of time researching how to grow the perfect giant pumpkin and learned lots of stuff like: the perfect season for planting, the proper soil conditions, pruning, fertilizing, and they even went as far as buying pumpkin seeds from last year’s great pumpkin winner. The Dingo and little Max put a lot of hard work into growing their pumpkins and they were both ready for the big event.

As the weeks went by and their pumpkins got bigger and bigger, the buzz in the neighborhood was that Kitty Kitterton had been growing a pretty impressive sized pumpkin as well! Little Max couldn’t believe it. It seemed that every time he turned around Kitty Kitterton was one step ahead of him: first in line, first to be picked, and always winning first place in contests. It made little Max very jealous of her and it showed whenever he talked about it.

The Dingo knew that feeling all too well. It’s definitely not easy to be in someone else’s shadow, whether it be a sibling, a co-worker or even a classmate, but he knew it was important for the little guy to learn how to overcome this difficult emotion and rise above.

The Dingo started off by showing little Max the definition of the word “jealous” in the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

  • 1. a :  intolerant of rivalry or unfaithfulness. b :  disposed to suspect rivalry or unfaithfulness
  • 2.    :  hostile toward a rival or one believed to enjoy an advantage

The definition contained negative words like “intolerant” and “hostile.” Little Max didn’t want to be any of those things and if that’s what it meant to be jealous then he definitely did not want to be known or seen as a jealous person. There was only one problem though: He didn’t know how NOT to be jealous of Kitty Kitterton!

The Dingo explained how in life, we have to learn to celebrate other people’s accomplishments & advantages. We should be happy for others not envious and if we know someone who does something very well, we should take note and learn from them. At some point, we need to celebrate who we are, be satisfied with what we have and accept our own level of strengths & weaknesses. We were created to be super awesome and to accomplish great things large and small.

It was a lot for little Max to take in and it was very hard on his pride to think that he had to be happy for Kitty Kitterton, but he promised The Dingo that he would try.

The day of the contest arrived and they both discovered that the rumors were true: Kitty Kitterton’s pumpkin was ginormous! She definitely deserved to win first place and the judges thought so, too. After the ribbons were awarded, to The Dingo’s surprise,  little Max walked over to Kitty Kitterton and congratulated her on a job well done. In turn, she congratulated him as well on his beautiful pumpkin and even offered to give him some pointers for next year’s contest and he graciously accepted the offer.

The Dingo smiled, glad to see little Max rising above and not letting jealousy ruin a wonderful moment and embracing an opportunity to grow in character. As he told Max before on several occasions: “We should purpose ourselves to always walk in love, never stop growing in wisdom & continue to work towards being a better person today than we were yesterday.”

Walk in Love.
Y.C.Lozano ©2014

The Dingo Walks in Love is a project that teaches lesson in love with the power of art, social media, books, pubic art, & random acts of kindness.

Dingo Love: Community

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Love is Community prints are now available through my Fine Art America Store

Love is Community prints are now available through my Fine Art America Store. Click the pic for details.

Love is Community

Once upon a time The Dingo was sorting through his mail and he came across a letter that was delivered to the wrong address. It was meant to go to his neighbor who lived just a few houses down. Her name was Ms. Jade, a kind elderly lady who lived alone.

The Dingo would often pass by her house during his morning walks. He remembered thinking how she had one of the nicest houses on the block. It was always tidy, the lawn and garden were well kept, and she would often be found enjoying the afternoon breeze from her rocking chair on the front porch. Recently though, The Dingo had noticed the sparkle in her house had vanished: the grass was overgrown, the garden looked lifeless, and Ms. Jade didn’t seem to be spending much time outside anymore.

As The Dingo approached the neighbor’s house he looked around and noticed the paint was peeling off the walls and the windows needed a good cleaning. He rang the doorbell and Ms. Jade answered, “It’s so nice to see you Dingo! What brings you by?” The Dingo explained the postal mix up and handed his neighbor the letter. With a smile she thanked him and offered to bring out some sweet tea for them to enjoy on the front porch. The Dingo accepted the invitation graciously.

Concerned for Ms. Jade, he asked her if everything was okay. She explained that all was well, but about 6 months ago she got laid off from her part-time job at the library because of city budget cuts, so times were tight. She used to be able to pay a young man down the street to help her with various chores around the house that were too difficult for her to do alone, like mowing the lawn, cleaning the windows, and other random odds & ends. With some recent health issues that she was just now overcoming, she found herself having to prioritize her savings to go towards the medical costs first. Hopefully, after she found another job, she would be able to pay for some hired help to get her house sparkling again.

The Dingo felt bad for Ms. Jade. He didn’t exactly have a green thumb or any house painting supplies, but he could certainly help her with something. So he offered to clean her windows. She was delighted and thanked him profusely.

As he walked back home to get a change of clothes and some cleaning supplies, he thought about how he could further help Ms. Jade with the many things that needed to be done around her house. If he tried to tackle the various tasks alone it would take forever but, then he remembered a quote that he saw the other day: “Many hands make light work.”*. “THAT’S IT!” The Dingo shouted, “I’ll reach out to my community and ask for help! Together we’ll get Ms. Jade back to her old self in no time!”

But first, he decided to look up the word “community” in the Merriam-Webster dictionary and this is what he found:

  • : a group of people who live in the same area (such as a city, town, or neighborhood)
  • : a group of people who have the same interests, religion, race, etc.
  • : a group of nations

From the definition, he figured out that his community could include anyone and everyone. Well, in this particular situation, anyone and everyone was going to consist of those neighbors, friends & family that were willing to help. He quickly found someone who would help paint Ms. Jade’s house, another who would cut her lawn and get her garden growing again, and he also got little Max to commit to helping her with other random odds and ends. The Dingo even contacted his friend, a local bookstore owner, and found out that they were looking for part-time help.

With a smile on his face, The Dingo went back to Ms. Jade’s and broke the good news to her. He explained how several people were going to help make her house sparkle again in no time; he also informed her how himself & little Max were going to come over once a week to help with random odds & ends; and then he gave her the bookstore owner’s name & phone number and told her that he was expecting her call for a possible job offer.

Ms. Jade was moved with emotion as her eyes welled up with tears thinking of the love that she was witnessing. She knew without the help of many, without The Dingo’s big heart and quick action, and without the kindness and generosity of strangers, she couldn’t of done it herself.

As The Dingo washed the windows, he was thankful that he was in a position to help Ms. Jade. He knew that walking in love was a full time job and if we all stopped for just a moment and looked around us, we could always find opportunities to be a blessing in someone’s life. Today, he was able to be a blessing to Ms. Jade.

 

Walk in Love.
Y.C.Lozano ©2014
*Quote from : John Heywood

The Dingo Walks in Love is a project that teaches lesson in love with the power of art, social media, books, pubic art, & random acts of kindness.