…continuing…
If there’s one thing dogs do well, it is bringing humans together, giving us a pathway to come together in harmony. Sure, they are indeed sentient beings, and we also derive a symbolic relationship with them. They resemble something to us. They bring out what is kept inside.
I was gone yesterday at a conference in Indianapolis on understanding the new ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)’. I didn’t worry about Trace hardly at all. I find that a bit freeing. Of course, my brain was highly occupied by the conference, but part of it too was knowing I have the support of family and friends. I even had one of my very close friends stop by the house midday to take the dogs out. I got a really nice email from my mom and dad giving words of advice and compassion about Trace – they would know as we had three dogs over the course of about 25 years as I was growing up. And I’ve gotten some great feedback from a cousin who is a vet.
It’s nice to know that people care. And even if we have times in life when we feel no one cares, we still have this capacity to still care for others and there’s something humanizing about that.
But the more we pay attention to a person, animal, place, or thing, we begin to feel an intriguing new energy about it – the other becomes sacred to us. A quote from Tara Brach:
What Ms. Brach reminds me of are the dogs from my past. We had a Collie named Mac that my parents adopted in the mid 70s before I was born. I have a faint memory of him but I imagine I gave him as much annoying attention as my almost-three-year-old gives Bella and Trace. In 1989, when I turned 6 we adopted a Border Collie named, Charmin. She was, as we recall vividly, a “maniac.” We ended up giving her to a farmer when we moved back to Ohio – it was the best for both our family and for Charmin. And then there was Ashley, our golden retriever, who we had from 1994 to 2000. With all of these dogs, to this day I can still feel the heart-to-heart connection even though they have “gone back to the earth.” In a way, as weird as this might sound, the dogs of my past share this same beingness as Bella and Trace. In some way, they have “met” each other. The same way the beingness we share with our parents extends through us to our children. It is a transcendent sense of beingness.
Enough philosophy for one day…
I suppose when the Good Lord takes me home, I’m going to have to bring a lot of leashes for all those dogs waiting for me beyond the pearly gates. Until then, I’m gonna enjoy the ones we have – besides, its a lot less poop to clean up!
Four more days! Have a nice weekend!
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I like the way Krishnamurti describes the process of becoming ‘sacred’. When Pokagon elders visit us, they speak of ‘sacredness’ in a similar manner.