Reminders
“Life is simple. Everything happens for you, not to you. Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don’t have to like it… it’s just easier if you do.”
There’s nothing like watching a beloved family member or pet in a dying process to get one’s attention. It happened to me when my Dad died almost 4 years ago. And it is happening again as my dear Norfolk Terrier, Yankee, lives out his final chapter. It’s such a meditation, this process, if I let it be.
I am reminded each morning of the gift of relationship, and the gift of life. As I breathe deeply before opening his crate door in the morning, I am fully prepared for whatever happened overnight. So far, I’ve rejoiced in another day well spent with him. I like, now, to stick closer to home, reveling in the energy exchange between us. And I notice the exquisite moments that are available when I am quiet and with his process, and with him.
Dogs don’t use thought the way humans do, you see. They are present to what is, for the most part. Consciousness is much weaker in dogs than it is in people. Dogs don’t self-reflect to the degree humans do, if at all. They connect, they experience, they act from wisdom and instinct. And they don’t worry about the future or the past. They take what they have and go forward, not judging themselves or the situation.
How would our experience differ if we could let go of our past and our plans? During this process, I’ve found I am much more stabilized, much more balanced, and much more creative. I love more easily and forgive more quickly. I notice what has meaning, and I side-step what doesn’t. I rest in grace, and am thankful.
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s live may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Wendell Berry
