Dogs and Humans ~ A Healing Balm...

Lola

A week ago I made a decision to get a dog. I am going through a difficult time in my life, suffering from depression and what I have described as a dark heavy ache - living in liminal space with vertigo of the soul.

Recently, I left Minnesota where I live and came to stay with my parents in Canada to breathe and heal.  I left my job which I really liked, especially the people I worked with. My three children are also back in Minnesota who I love and miss. I know they are processing what all this means - having their dad so far away for an unknown period of time which is hard for them. So many difficult things life seems to leave in our path as we journey to where we really don’t know.

In all this I decided to find a dog to be my companion and friend. Earlier this year I read Richard Rohr’s book, The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective and discovered I am a four on the Enneagram which means I am:

“…self-aware, sensitive, and reserved. They are emotionally honest, creative, and personal, but can also be moody and self-conscious. Withholding themselves from others due to feeling vulnerable and defective, they can also feel disdainful and exempt from ordinary ways of living. They typically have problems with melancholy, self-indulgence, and self-pity.

At their Best: inspired and highly creative, they are able to renew themselves and transform their experiences.

Basic Fear: That they have no identity or personal significance

Basic Desire: To find themselves and their significance (to create an identity)”

~ taken from:  The Enneagram Institute

In Rohr’s book he gives a country and a dog best suited for each personality type and my country is France and my dog is a Bassett Hound. Last year I was in France and loved it – can’t wait to go back! So...I thought a Bassett Hound would be the dog for me.

Lola

So...I found Lola or maybe if Tom Harpur is right, maybe she mystically found me? Either way she is perfect and has been a balm of healing for me even in our first week together.

Below is article that was in the Brantford Expositor this week that beautifully gets at the bond between humans and dogs.

 

Aptly named Buddy was gift from God

By: Tom Harpur

Taken From:   The Brantford Expositor

Almost a year ago we lost a dearly loved and intimate member of our family. Until now I have been unable to put the full impact of this event in writing. I am talking here about the death of Buddy, our 12-year-old yellow Labrador retriever companion and friend.

Over the years we have had more than one dog become a vital part of our lives, but this particularly loving, knowing, constant presence was unique and will always hold a very deep, special place in our minds and hearts.

 Authors are often asked about the writing process and how inspiration comes. For me, the most creative thoughts come while walking alone in places only a Labrador could love more -- through deserted orchards, alongside tumbling streams or surrounded by the stillness of forests at any time of the year.

Buddy's never-flagging joy at sharing in it all led over time to a silent sense of communion almost as if he knew we were at work together in the midst of all the fun of sighting deer, surprising wild turkeys or vainly chasing a swift jack rabbit out of sight.

At the end of each day, it seemed he knew from the spring in my step as we headed home that the outing had worked and that a column or a fresh chapter would take us both to the study again. He was my co-author with no ambition for fame or "a good press."

With pets it is always the eyes glowing with understanding that reveal the soul within. I agree with Carl Jung's observation that the wistful sadness one often catches in odd glances from our animal associates, especially in moments of closeness and affection, reveal an innate longing for deeper fellowship, almost as though they silently mourn their lack of speech.

Yet Buddy was truly eloquent in that way that most pets have, if you are tuned to the moment. You knew what he was thinking almost to the letter most of the time and it seemed he knew our thoughts without a spoken word.

I believe religion has largely failed animals. We have been slow to recognize what a huge gift of God they are and have tended to take out of context verses in Genesis about man's destiny to have dominion over all other creatures. I agree with Robert Louis Stevenson who said, "Do you think dogs will be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us!"

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, in The Brothers Karamazoff, wrote with characteristic Russian passion, "Love animals. God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. ... Man, do not pride yourself on your superiority to animals; they are without sin, and you, with your greatness, defile the earth by your appearance on it and leave the traces of your foulness after you ..." I recall this passage every time a transport loaded with terrified pigs or cattle headed for the abbatoir passes us along the road.

The great Dr. Albert Schweitzer prayed thus: "Hear our humble prayer, O God, for our friends the animals, especially any who are suffering; for any that are hunted or lost, or deserted or frightened or hungry; for all that must be put to death. We entreat for them ... and for those who deal with them we ask a heart of compassion and gentle hands and kindly words. Make us to be true friends to animals and so to share the blessings of the Merciful."

When we remember Buddy and conjure up again those large, devoted eyes, a flood of memories pour in. In my book Is There Life After Death?, I wrote that I believe that since animals share in consciousness, they too are living souls always deserving of our deepest respect.

Whatever the next stage or dimension of being will be like, it will not be "heaven" without animals, especially those who have engraved their likeness forever in our hearts.

~ Tom Harpur is a best-selling author on spiritual and ethical issues.  Tom Harpur