#animalsasteachers

[cokedoublezero]

This morning when I opened my eyes, I started getting up, getting dressed, reading through notifications… like pretty much everybody.

When Chiyo opened his eyes, he stretched, plopped back down beside me, nuzzled his face into my hands, & started licking me.

The first thing on his agenda was love.

And he made me think.

What if we woke up & immediately started giving love?

I know we are all “busy”

But just for today, give it a try.

Let’s put love at the top of the to do list.

Let love come first.

[cokedoublezero]

“Animals as Teachers”

Often it is animals who open us up to our first encounters with compassion & empathy.

The puppy scared of thunder alerts us that there may be a sound that is different than the one we hear.

The dog, with his nose 30x more perceptive than our human noses, shows us an invisibility right in front of us, that we would swear did not exist.

The service animal alerts to medical conditions in a patient that the human doctor can not detect with even the most sophisticated technology.

And yet we do not tell him he is crazy for experiencing something we are not.

So what is reality, you say?

Well, depends who is asking.

What if we were to extend this same acceptance to all beings? That instead of invalidating another’s view as “wrong”, we could understand that there are sounds we do not hear & colours we cannot see, that are no less real than the ones we do?

What if there is so much more?

Only if we work together, is it possible to transcend the limit of our own experience.

— excerpt from my upcoming book, title TBA