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Dingo Love: Considerate

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Love is Considerate

Love is Considerate,

Love is Considerate,

Once upon a time, while The Dingo was planning his lunch, he realized he was out of bread and a couple of other things around the kitchen. So he decided to make a quick trip to the grocery store.

As he pulled into the hectic parking lot, The Dingo couldn’t believe how busy it was! He circled and circled around for a parking space and he finally found one at the far end of the lot. He made his way to the front door and he noticed a guy who had just finished unloading his groceries into the back of his car. The same guy started walking the cart all the way back to the store, but The Dingo decided to help him out and offered to take the cart for him. “You are so considerate, thank you!,” said the guy as he handed over the cart to The Dingo. The Dingo just smiled and made his way towards the store pushing the cart in front of him.

He walked into the supermarket and parked the grocery cart into the appropriate area and grabbed a small shopping basket instead. As he made his way to the produce section he noticed an employee restocking the oranges and before he knew it, a few oranges had tumbled off of the shelf and began rolling down the produce section. As the employee frantically chased after the oranges, The Dingo jumped into action and helped him catch the remaining ones. “That was so considerate of you, thank you for helping me catch the run away oranges!,” the employee said to The Dingo. The Dingo smiled, placed the oranges on the shelf and continued shopping.

After grabbing the few items he needed, The Dingo made his way to the check out line and to his pleasant surprise a register lane had just opened with no lines and no waiting. As he walked over to the open lane, another customer with a full cart of groceries and a little guy in tow was making her way to the same register lane as well. She really seemed to have her hands full and even though The Dingo was first to the lane, he stepped back and offered her his place in the front of the line. “You are so kind and considerate, thank you!,” she said. The Dingo smiled and waited patiently for his turn.

On the drive home, he reflected and thought back to how many people called him “considerate” during his trip to the store. He thought about that word and as soon as he walked into his front door, he decided to look it up in the Merriam-Webster dictionary and this is what he found:

1:  marked by or given to careful consideration :  circumspect
2:  thoughtful of the rights and feelings of othersHe reflected on this definition and smiled. He enjoyed being thoughtful and knew deep down that thinking about the rights and feelings of others is a great way to walk in love. It’s very easy to go through life only thinking about our own needs and desires and we often complain about things that are an inconvenience to us e.g., the far away parking spot, the runaway oranges getting in our way, the long check out lines, etc. , but we rarely stop to acknowledge that there are other people around us dealing with the same issues. So we can either complain or follow the golden rule whenever we can: treat others as you’d want to be treated.
The Dingo chooses to walk in love and in the process, he hopes to inspire others to do the same.

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: Kind

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Love is Kind

Love is Kind

 

Love is Kind

Once upon a time The Dingo decided to teach little Max about what it means to be kind. Max had some very good habits that were instilled on him at a very young age like saying “please” & “thank you,” but The Dingo wanted to be sure that the little guy understood why these habits and many more like it, were so important.

First things first, The Dingo wanted to show Max the definition of the word “kind” in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. So they both read it out loud together:

  • : having or showing a gentle nature and a desire to help others : wanting and liking to do good things and to bring happiness to others

According to the definition, being kind is about showing others you care for their happiness. It’s also about putting aside our own needs and desires so we may be more sensitive on how we may better serve others around us. More importantly, we have to make sure that all this is coming from a good place in our hearts and not being done for selfish reasons.

The Dingo went on to explain that the main reason we practice good manners, like saying “please” and “thank you,” is so that we can show our heart to those around us. Saying “please” shows that what we are asking for is a request and not a demand and saying “thank you” shows that we are grateful for what was given to us. While our words are important, it’s equally important that we also focus on our actions by finding ways that we can bless others with our service. It could be helping our parents with various chores or even finding ways to give back to our community.

Little Max was excited about what he had just learned and he couldn’t wait to get started. He even went as far as drawing some pictures of himself participating in random acts of kindness like picking up litter, raking the leaves, and he even had a picture of himself donating food to the local food drive.

Knowing that the possibilities of kindness were endless, The Dingo got that warm & fuzzy feeling knowing that the kindness of one can impact many and seeing that Max had just jumped onto the kindness wagon meant that many more people were going to be feeling the love and this made The Dingo very happy.

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: Caring About the Environment

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To purchase a print of Love is Environmentally Aware, check out my Fine Art America Store by clicking on the pic above.

To purchase a print of Love is Environmentally Aware, check out my Fine Art America Store by clicking on the pic above.

Love is Caring About the Environment

Once upon, a time The Dingo decided to go on an adventure. It was a cool brisk morning, he put on his favorite hoodie, packed a few snacks and headed out the door to the woods near his home.

As a young lad, he loved to explore the great outdoors. He could often be found quietly observing the wildlife, making sure not to disturb or disrupt the environment around him, and best of all, just taking in all the beauty. As he got a bit older, life got busier and busier and he spent less and less time in nature. Today, he purposed to go outside and enjoy the great outdoors!

As he made his way towards the woods. From far away he could see a big section of trees that had been cut down from the forest. In their place was a new strip mall. It was sad to think of how many beautiful trees were gone now because of this new development. This was not an uncommon theme in his town, and as the years passed by, it only seemed to be getting worse.

Now in the woods, The Dingo noticed quite a bit of litter on the ground: glass bottles, fast food containers, cigarette butts, plastic soda can rings… There was so much trash everywhere!

What happened to the beautiful pristine utopia of his childhood? Why did it get this bad? How did it get this bad?

The Dingo had always been sensitive to the fine balance of nature. From the water in our oceans to the air in the sky, from the creepy crawly insects in the dirt to the birds that fly high, everything mattered and had it’s purpose. He knew how important it was to recycle, reuse and reduce as best as he could or knew how. After all, there really is no such thing as an unlimited resource and when resources start running out, prices go up and when prices go up those that suffer the most are generally the least fortunate of us. The Dingo realized right then and there that something had to change and change soon.

As a self proclaimed tree-hugger and friend to all woodland creatures, The Dingo went home & found the definition of the word “environment” in the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

  • 1 :  the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded
  • 2 : a) the complex of physical, chemical, and biotic factors (as climate, soil, and living things) that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival: b) the aggregate of social and cultural conditions that influence the life of an individual or community

According to this definition, our environment is complex, we are all interconnected and what happens upstream affects those living downstream and everything and everyone in between. The Dingo knew it was time to empower the masses with the knowledge & resources to live cleaner and greener. It’s true that exploiting our natural resources can definitely help make a few people rich, but a clean, safe & thriving environment is priceless because it benefits everyone who lives in it.

The Dingo began his crusade by doing some pretty extensive research on several environmental subjects including climate change, littering, recycling, land fills, deforestation, and energy conservation, just to name a few; he wrote letters to his elected officials regarding the disappearance & neglect of the natural environment in his region and he got some of his close friends & neighbors to do the same; he arranged river & highway cleanup days with kids from local schools; and he even went as far as committing to participating in Meatless Mondays.

The Dingo smiled as the warm and fuzzy feeling of love overcame him. He knew that being environmentally aware not only impacted his neighbor next door but it also impacted his neighbors all the way on the other side of the globe and that was pretty awesome in his book.

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.