The Soft Pressure of What Waits
The wisdom of the Little Black Dog
Our Little Black Dog, she does this ‘thing.’
When she’s keen to be stroked, she sits just so,
Perfectly positioned in your eyeline
Prepared to hold you in her stare.
All four paws, neatly pressed together,
The soft, lopsided corners of a fluffy square.
Her riotously waggy tail is tucked snugly around her,
Curling from back to front, as a punctuation mark.
She is stock-still.
Almost.
Just the faintest tremble in the tip of her tail.
She holds your gaze, and her breath, tightly.
You glance away…for the briefest moment.
You look back, and magically, she has moved.
Silently.
Surprisingly.
She’s edged a little closer.
Four paws squared.
Tail tucked.
Still.
Dead still.
Stiller than that.
Now her head is tilted a touch more,
And again she grips your eyes with hers.
Blink, and repeat.
And repeat.
And repeat.
Until, eventually, you feel the weight of her on your foot.
Unignorable.
Insistent.
The soft pressure of patience.
You cave.
Your fingers settle on her velvet-soft ears.
You tickle the trickle of milky white fur on her chest.
In return, she offers you…
A gentle a sigh,
A shudder of delight,
And the generous gift of oxytocin to your brain.
The wait is over.
You know that ‘thing’ you’ve been putting off?
It’s not gone.
It’s just... waiting.
Like a patient dog at your feet… soft-eyed, still, and strangely hard to ignore.
We often talk about procrastination as if it’s laziness, or a time management issue. But more often, it’s emotional.
There’s something in that task or decision or conversation that feels uncomfortable.
Uncertain.
Risky.
Or just really annoying.
And so we look away. Just for a second.
Tell ourselves we’ll deal with it soon.
And when we glance back… there it is. Closer than before.
Not shouting. Not chasing us down the hallway.
Just... sitting there.
Still.
Watching.
Wrapped in its own quiet tail.
Waiting for our attention.
And the longer we leave it, the heavier it gets.
Not loud… just quietly pressing against us.
Unignorable.
When we finally turn toward it, we usually find it’s not as bad as we feared.
We offer it some time, some care, a few deep breaths.
And in return, there’s a rush of relief, clarity, completion.
We feel better.
Not because we finally did the thing, but because we stopped using energy to avoid the thing.
Sometimes, the soft pressure is what saves us.
✨ What’s quietly pressing for your attention right now?
What’s waiting for your energy, your courage, your care?
P.S. I'm Bev. I help people think clearly about the things that sit quietly at the edge of their minds… especially the ones they’d rather not face.