This post is simply the contents of an email I received from an attorney/speaker/writer (Jim Karger) on whose blast email list my email address is recorded. I've known the guy for years and have always enjoyed his writing. This message is important. Read it all.
I Am Your Dog (Or Spouse, Child, Friend)
I don't know what brought back the memory but during a talk last week I recalled attending a philosophy class my freshman year in college, a class taught by a beautiful, bright, young, articulate professor who I believed was the perfect woman. She was in her early 30's. I remember lamenting my fate that I was just 18. But for our slight difference in age, I thought, she would like me and I would like her and we'd live happily ever after. As I was telling the story I performed some simple math in my head and was suddenly struck silent, stunned that my young philosophy professor is now in her 70's.
I don't remember now the point I was trying to make but the point I should have made is that there is no time to wish or hope or fear or even to do too much planning for tomorrow. There is just Now and our challenge in modernity is living in the present instead of rendering it a mere preface to some future moment when a larger McMansion, a new BMW, or some other toy will cause more to become enough. One need only look around to know that this fantasy turns nightmarish for those who cling to it too long.
Which is why I leave the following with you, a story by "Anonymous," who titled the work, "I Am Your Dog," but which could have been named "I Am Your Spouse," "I Am Your Child", or "I Am Your Friend." Regardless who you put into the supporting role, it reminds us of the importance of Now and that we use it together, wisely.
"I am your dog, and I have a little something I'd like to whisper in your ear. I know that you humans lead busy lives. Some have to work, some have children to raise. It always seems like you are running here and there, often much too fast, often never noticing the truly grand things in life. Look down at me now, while you sit there at your computer. See the way my dark brown eyes look at yours? They are slightly cloudy now. That comes with age. The gray hairs are beginning to ring my soft muzzle.
"You smile at me; I see love in your eyes. What do you see in mine? Do you see a spirit? A soul inside, who loves you as no other could in the world? A spirit that would forgive all trespasses of prior wrong doing for just a simple moment of your time? That is all I ask. To slow down, if even! for a few minutes to be with me. So many times you have been saddened by the words you read on that screen, of others of my kind, passing. Sometimes we die young and oh so quickly, sometimes so suddenly it wrenches your heart out of your throat. Sometimes, we age so slowly before your eyes that you may not even seem to know until the very end, when we look at you with grizzled muzzles and cataract clouded eyes. Still the love is always there, even when we must take that long sleep, to run free in a distant land.
"I may not be here tomorrow; I may not be here next week. Someday you will shed the water from your eyes, that humans have when deep grief fills their souls, and you will be angry at yourself that you did not have just "One more day" with me. Because I love you so, your sorrow touches my spirit and grieves me. We have NOW, together. So come, sit down here next to me on the floor, and look deep into my eyes. What do you see? If you look hard and deep enough we will talk, you and I, heart to heart. Come to me not as "alpha" or as "trainer" or even "Mom or Dad," come to me as a living soul and stroke my fur and let us look deep into one another's eyes, and talk.
"I may tell you something about the fun of chasing a tennis ball, or I may tell you
something profound about myself, or even life in general. You decided to have me in your life because you wanted a soul to share such things with. Someone very different from you, and here I am. I am a dog, but I am alive. I feel emotion, I feel physical senses, and I can revel in the differences of our spirits and souls. I do not think of you as a "Dog on two feet" -- I know what you are. You are human, in all your quirkiness, and I love you still.
"Now, come sit with me, on the floor. Enter my world, and let time slow down if only for 15 minutes. Look deep into my eyes, and whisper to my ears. Speak with your heart, with your joy and I will know your true self. We may not have tomorrow, and life is oh so very short.
--Love, (on behalf of canines everywhere)"
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