I think so, Brain, but what does it have to do with Elephants?
At least, that’s how I would have defined myself a few years ago. I’ve been owned and operated by cats all my life, so I was most familiar with the way they connect to the human experience, and, dogs, well, I just didn’t get them.
And then I became a member of a dog rescue organization, by proxy. That is, I live with a foster for the group, and so, by default, that makes me a foster, too.
But really, I suppose, at this point I’m not that much just doing it vicariously anymore… after all, I’m the one who is the lightest sleeper, so I’m the one who knows when they need to go out and gets up to take them; I’m the one who’s either around or more accessible when there are messes to be cleaned up, so I’m the one who gets that joy; and I’m the one they always seem to attach themselves to, and follow around like a… well, like a puppy dog, come to think of it (something about the natural softness in demeanor of that extra X chromosome, I guess). I’m also the chump who lets them stay one more day when we’re going out of town so they won’t have to be put up in a boarding kennel any more than is absolutely necessary… so, yeah, I guess I’m just a sucker after all.
The group we work with has a motto:
“Saving one dog won’t change the world, but the world WILL change for that ONE dog!”
I’m sure that’s true for a lot of the canine charges we put through the system. We take them from abusive settings, abandonment, or extreme neglect, we give them attention, shelter, a positive environment, and we find a loving family to share a new life together with them.
Yeah, we’ve changed a lot of lives.
Especially when it comes to one particular dog… this fuzzy, frisky, doltish monster of beast I know as “Wookie.”
In February of 2008, someone pulled up to an intersection in Uptown, opened their minivan door, pushed her out, and drove away. She was just 14 weeks old.
Then she landed in our home, and the next day found herself permanently indebted to me. It only took 24 hours. I remember a moment after she’d been with us just overnight…
I was sitting on the couch, and she’d planted herself at my feet… I was minding my own business, and hadn’t realized she was there… I went to get up and nearly stepped on her… she looked up at me, her head tilted backwards toward me… I smiled at her…
The look in her eyes at that moment told me there was nothing more in the world I could have done for her to make her more fulfilled than just to smile at her, and let her know that I was happy in her presence. That simple gesture was everything in the world for her, and all she needed to know that life was good. And that was all I needed, too… I was hooked.
From that moment on, she was MY dog.
And now, I can’t imagine my life without her.
One touch. One life to another, one change at a time. Sometimes, that’s all it takes.
And it’s probably a good thing, too, since that’s about all we can usually handle, really, most of the time. We’re not superhuman, we’re not preternatural, we’re not godlike in our powers to interact with the masses… at least, not most of us, anyway.
Most of us don’t have the ability to move mountains or millions with a word, a thought, or a touch.
Throughout the centuries and across cultures we’ve passed down stories about those who have performed such miraculous feats as they’ve been idolized into mythical beings, religious leaders, or fictional superheroes. The ability to touch a life, to impact the world, becomes almost supernatural, metaphysical, even mystical.
I used to be religious, once…
…but, not to worry… I got over it.
I would have called myself a recovering fundamentalist, but, that can’t be accurate… I don’t think that level of indoctrination is something you ever really get over. It propagates something permanent inside you, like a tumor that attaches itself to some subdural section of your psyche, that you never really can quite remove all of completely.
There was a time, too, when I was unnerved by this condition, but somewhere along the way I’ve also come to a more tolerant acceptance that maybe that’s okay…
Maybe there needs to be some semblance of a relationship with some sort of sacrosanctimonious foundation to give us a basis for understanding of concepts that are greater, higher, more powerful than we otherwise could have imagined. We start out with something from our culture, something that we know, that is familiar to us, and that can be drawn upon, and we develop our deeper sense of recognition as we grow.
What we choose to accept outside our own existence evolves over time as we journey through life. We reach the conclusions we are led to along the roads we travel, that we connect with most intuitively, that make the most sense to us, and that help to keep us moving forward.
But, whether you believe in, worship, follow or just have a healthy respect for Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Krishna, Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Lao-Tse, Confucius, The Kami, The Jinas, Abraham - Isaac - & - Jacob, Joseph Smith or The Pope, you should acknowledge in each of them a founder of faith, a pioneer of principals, a creator of a creed.
And you can argue until the cows (or the elephants) come home over the purpose behind religions, in all their diverse variations… the truth is, it’s such a quintessentially personal commitment, it means something different to everyone, even within the ranks of whichever affiliation you may be aligned to.
"So oft in theologic wars, the disputants... rail on in utter ignorance of what each other mean..."
But, it cannot be argued that among them all, there is the recurring theme…
To impact lives. To bring about change. To make a difference. To affect humanity.
In another era, we thought that what the world needs now is love… that all you need is love. That is certainly as true now as it was then - as undeniable today as it will be tomorrow.
For myself, I can't say with unquestionable certainly what spiritual communion I hold truest, but, I do know a few things I believe in irrefutably, and one thing I'm sure of, is that if I have anything resembling a religion at all, it would include the conviction that love is the most powerful force in all the universe.
But, by what vehicle to we possess the capacity to bring about the delivery of enlightenment into each and every life?
The prophets, the healers, the teachers, the seers… as long as time has existed, they’ve labored to answer this driving question.
I don't always trust that I can believe in them, but I do believe in you, and I believe in me.
So maybe the answer isn’t found in them at all… maybe it’s just in the heart of who we are.
You might could say I'm a humanist... I might be even inclined to entertain the notion of an acquiescence toward a devotion to complete solipsism, if it weren't for one factor that makes me know there's so more out there than just the energy of light...
Maybe, our entire experience of living in this plane is all about…
One touch.
One life to another,
hand to hand,
heart to heart,
affecting change,
encouraging growth.
Working miracles every day.
Impacting lives.
Making a difference, one life at a time...
with just one touch.
When Love IS the answer, anything is possible...
with just one touch.
LJ Idol | Season 6 • Week 7 - Topic: ONE TOUCH
This post has been brought to you through an association with the online writing community forum, LJ Idol.
If you have enjoyed this entry, please feel free to speak your piece, share the love, and pass it on...
...and thanks for stopping by.
And then I became a member of a dog rescue organization, by proxy. That is, I live with a foster for the group, and so, by default, that makes me a foster, too.
But really, I suppose, at this point I’m not that much just doing it vicariously anymore… after all, I’m the one who is the lightest sleeper, so I’m the one who knows when they need to go out and gets up to take them; I’m the one who’s either around or more accessible when there are messes to be cleaned up, so I’m the one who gets that joy; and I’m the one they always seem to attach themselves to, and follow around like a… well, like a puppy dog, come to think of it (something about the natural softness in demeanor of that extra X chromosome, I guess). I’m also the chump who lets them stay one more day when we’re going out of town so they won’t have to be put up in a boarding kennel any more than is absolutely necessary… so, yeah, I guess I’m just a sucker after all.
The group we work with has a motto:
“Saving one dog won’t change the world, but the world WILL change for that ONE dog!”
I’m sure that’s true for a lot of the canine charges we put through the system. We take them from abusive settings, abandonment, or extreme neglect, we give them attention, shelter, a positive environment, and we find a loving family to share a new life together with them.
Yeah, we’ve changed a lot of lives.
Especially when it comes to one particular dog… this fuzzy, frisky, doltish monster of beast I know as “Wookie.”
In February of 2008, someone pulled up to an intersection in Uptown, opened their minivan door, pushed her out, and drove away. She was just 14 weeks old.
Then she landed in our home, and the next day found herself permanently indebted to me. It only took 24 hours. I remember a moment after she’d been with us just overnight…
I was sitting on the couch, and she’d planted herself at my feet… I was minding my own business, and hadn’t realized she was there… I went to get up and nearly stepped on her… she looked up at me, her head tilted backwards toward me… I smiled at her…
The look in her eyes at that moment told me there was nothing more in the world I could have done for her to make her more fulfilled than just to smile at her, and let her know that I was happy in her presence. That simple gesture was everything in the world for her, and all she needed to know that life was good. And that was all I needed, too… I was hooked.
From that moment on, she was MY dog.
And now, I can’t imagine my life without her.
One touch. One life to another, one change at a time. Sometimes, that’s all it takes.
And it’s probably a good thing, too, since that’s about all we can usually handle, really, most of the time. We’re not superhuman, we’re not preternatural, we’re not godlike in our powers to interact with the masses… at least, not most of us, anyway.
Most of us don’t have the ability to move mountains or millions with a word, a thought, or a touch.
Throughout the centuries and across cultures we’ve passed down stories about those who have performed such miraculous feats as they’ve been idolized into mythical beings, religious leaders, or fictional superheroes. The ability to touch a life, to impact the world, becomes almost supernatural, metaphysical, even mystical.
I used to be religious, once…
…but, not to worry… I got over it.
I would have called myself a recovering fundamentalist, but, that can’t be accurate… I don’t think that level of indoctrination is something you ever really get over. It propagates something permanent inside you, like a tumor that attaches itself to some subdural section of your psyche, that you never really can quite remove all of completely.
There was a time, too, when I was unnerved by this condition, but somewhere along the way I’ve also come to a more tolerant acceptance that maybe that’s okay…
Maybe there needs to be some semblance of a relationship with some sort of sacrosanctimonious foundation to give us a basis for understanding of concepts that are greater, higher, more powerful than we otherwise could have imagined. We start out with something from our culture, something that we know, that is familiar to us, and that can be drawn upon, and we develop our deeper sense of recognition as we grow.
What we choose to accept outside our own existence evolves over time as we journey through life. We reach the conclusions we are led to along the roads we travel, that we connect with most intuitively, that make the most sense to us, and that help to keep us moving forward.
But, whether you believe in, worship, follow or just have a healthy respect for Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Krishna, Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Lao-Tse, Confucius, The Kami, The Jinas, Abraham - Isaac - & - Jacob, Joseph Smith or The Pope, you should acknowledge in each of them a founder of faith, a pioneer of principals, a creator of a creed.
And you can argue until the cows (or the elephants) come home over the purpose behind religions, in all their diverse variations… the truth is, it’s such a quintessentially personal commitment, it means something different to everyone, even within the ranks of whichever affiliation you may be aligned to.
"So oft in theologic wars, the disputants... rail on in utter ignorance of what each other mean..."
But, it cannot be argued that among them all, there is the recurring theme…
To impact lives. To bring about change. To make a difference. To affect humanity.
In another era, we thought that what the world needs now is love… that all you need is love. That is certainly as true now as it was then - as undeniable today as it will be tomorrow.
For myself, I can't say with unquestionable certainly what spiritual communion I hold truest, but, I do know a few things I believe in irrefutably, and one thing I'm sure of, is that if I have anything resembling a religion at all, it would include the conviction that love is the most powerful force in all the universe.
But, by what vehicle to we possess the capacity to bring about the delivery of enlightenment into each and every life?
The prophets, the healers, the teachers, the seers… as long as time has existed, they’ve labored to answer this driving question.
I don't always trust that I can believe in them, but I do believe in you, and I believe in me.
So maybe the answer isn’t found in them at all… maybe it’s just in the heart of who we are.
You might could say I'm a humanist... I might be even inclined to entertain the notion of an acquiescence toward a devotion to complete solipsism, if it weren't for one factor that makes me know there's so more out there than just the energy of light...
Maybe, our entire experience of living in this plane is all about…
One touch.
One life to another,
hand to hand,
heart to heart,
affecting change,
encouraging growth.
Working miracles every day.
Impacting lives.
Making a difference, one life at a time...
with just one touch.
When Love IS the answer, anything is possible...
with just one touch.
LJ Idol | Season 6 • Week 7 - Topic: ONE TOUCH
This post has been brought to you through an association with the online writing community forum, LJ Idol.
If you have enjoyed this entry, please feel free to speak your piece, share the love, and pass it on...
...and thanks for stopping by.