There’s an intersection near my home, kind of a busy one, and it’s not uncommon to see homeless folks out there with their signs asking for money. Occasionally they’ll also have animals with them, usually dogs. There was a time when I used to feel first fear for the animal followed quickly by anger at the human. Fear that this animal’s health and safety was in danger living on the streets and anger that the human would be so selfish as to keep the animal with them for their comfort presumably. Yes, exactly – quite a bit of judgment and assuming going on with three fingers pointing back at me and only one pointing at the human.
Recently, when I pass through this same busy intersection there’s been a man with two dogs standing on the corner. I’ve noticed that the dogs have a bowl of water and food, leashes, and as it’s been hot out they are, at times, a few feet away in the shade of a nearby building. The looks on the dogs’ faces are the same as the man’s – stoic and resolute in the moment. I give what I can at the time and always with an offering of Reiki for their highest and best good. I’ve come to a place personally and professionally that I know it really doesn’t matter how I feel about another individual’s situation. That’s usually not helpful to them at all because in that moment the focus then shifts to me and my feelings about what I see. At my best, I create and hold sacred space for all beings involved and follow their highest and best good as shown to me by their guides. Being more of a channel for their empowerment because that’s truly what they need from me and, I believe, what we need most from each other. Judging and making generalized statements about what “should” be done doesn’t take into account soul path and the “why” of any situation. Most often I find the “why” to be way above my paygrade, so to speak, and so a resting place of deep compassion for others serves me well.
Anyone who’s been reading my bi-monthly blog posts knows that recently I’ve been on a rant about the purely scientific view of animals along with sweeping half-truths (because the soul is not considered) by humans. I’ll add this article’s link among those viewpoints with which I most strongly disagree.
I’ll go out on a limb and say that for these two dogs on the street corner there may not be any other place they’d rather be or actually could be in this lifetime. To say that their needs aren’t being provided for places one back in judgment of what is observed (science-wise) as opposed to what is actually known. Perhaps this man rescued these dogs from a worse situation and while currently not perfect (according to the author) is better for them than before because he feeds them and gives them water as well as companionship. This is not to say that if we have the resources health support in the form of a vet is a good thing to do for our animal companions and their bodies. Then again, I’ve had conversations with some animals whose guardians would claim “they have the best of everything, why aren’t they happy” and the animal is slowly starving to death energetically because of an emotionally toxic household. Perhaps the emotional and energetic aspect of our animal companions is at least as important as what we “do” for/to them in the name of science upon which modern medicine is based.
To start with, I’d invite the author of the book about which the article is written to examine the title itself. By definition a “pet” is an animal “kept” for enjoyment and/or livestock purposes as her title implies. Yet she also uses the term “animal companions” which I find to be at complete odds with the title unless it was written for a broader audience on whom she has already passed judgment. I would challenge her assertion that because she takes herself and her dogs to the local animal park where she can see other well-cared-for dogs that those animals – or hers – are happy. This is the ultimate paradigm that must change going forward that what we see is what it truly is because most often it’s not the whole picture. To keep animals in a place where they are one dimensional as science would prefer robs them – and us – of the astounding soul awareness opportunities for which they came into our lives. I daresay the homeless man and his animals are closer to these moments although to be fair I’d have to ask them. I do know they’d tell me their truth which while not based in science has deep meaning – for them which is, after all, the whole point to life on Earth.