Soul

Guest Blog Post: The Tao of RELATIONSHIP by Bryan Wagner

da-AL Animals, Blogging, Cats, Compassion, Dogs, Guest Posts, Happiness, Joy, Kindness, Love, Modern Life, Pets, Soul, Spirit, Words

Communication is not easy. Whether I’m listening, reading, looking… all my interactions are colored by my perspective that’s shaped by my present and past. Sometimes my simplest, most straight-forward conversations are with my dear doggie.

Who do you interact with most easily? Blogger/writer Bryan Wagner presents workshops on Zen, Tao, and Shamanism. Here’s his take on relationships…

Bryan Wagner and a friend spending quality time together.

“The Tao of RELATIONSHIP” by Bryan Wagner

Communion is creating and embracing an emotional, spiritual, sharing of each other.

We can enter a state of communion if we are present and each of us has the desire, openness, and willingness to remain so. 

We can also use that willingness of communication to build a more intimate exchange that leaves traces of each participant within the other. That is the act of communion. Communion is not just language and sharing. Communion is a process further than language, it is the art of complete communication in the moment. Genuine communion happens when things move between those in relationship that is grounded in the awareness of the moment.

I believe that the sharing of emotional content is important to the state of being in communion. That means to express emotional, non-verbal content, and then allow the receiver to process it in whatever form that action takes.

Communion happens inter-species because spoken language is only a very small part of communion. Some of my happiest moments are in communion with animals. I think in part because they are aware and painfully honest in how they respond. Being with animals has the effect of clearing the detritus and fog from my thinking and reference frame on life. I engage in the state of love so readily with animals!

I honor and value those that I commune with and actively seek out building those relationships that offer that place of intimacy. I encourage people to embrace the idea of communing with others and seek those relationships out in their own lives.

Today I will spend some time communing with Spike and P’nut and a horse named Anastasia. I can’t think of a better way to share life. – Bryan Wagner

Who do you interact with most easily?

I’m featured on Mike and the Gang’s blog!

da-AL Achievement, Authors, Awards, Blessings, Blogging, Mind, Novels, Personalities, Reblog, Self Image, Self-Publishing, Social Media, Soul, Uncategorized, Women, Writing

We bloggers are a friendly lot. If we’re extra fortunate, we’ll meet an entire family of charming of bloggers at the same site!

Such is the case with Mike and the Gang. Recently they wrote a post for Happiness Between Tails to help readers understand a bit about dissociative identity disorder.

Now they’ve touched my heart by publishing about me on their OurDiDJourney site — click here to read it!

On the whole, what’s your experience been with bloggers?…

Now We Are 2 (only): Sweet Lola is Sorely Missed by da-AL

da-AL Adults, Aging, Animal Husbandry, Animals, Arthritis, Blessings, Body, Bravery, Celebration, Children, Death, Decision-making, Depression, Dogs, Family, Fear, Geriatrics, Gratitude, Happiness, Heaven on Earth, Heroes, Individuality, Joints, Joy, Kindness, Life, Life Expectancy, Loneliness, Love, Magic, Mindfulness, Modern Life, Motherhood, Mothers, Pets, Recovery, Remembering, Romance, Soul, Strength, Survivors, Teachers, Uncategorized, Women

Lola our black Labrador mix dog at the beach.
Lola our black Labrador mix dog at the beach.

Our home is too quiet, too empty without our dear Lola. Last Wednesday, she joined her twin brother, Pierre.

Lola our black Labrador mix dog when she was only a few months old.
Lola our black Labrador mix dog when she was only a few months old.

We were privileged to have her. Like Pierre, she was loyal in every way to the end. The two were trusting, kind, obedient, and fun loving.

Lola our black Labrador mix dog, to the right of her brother, Pierre.
Lola our black Labrador mix dog, to the right of her brother, Pierre.

Second in her heart only to her human family was her adored brother who passed away a few months ago. Hopefully, now they’re together, forever safe and happy.

Lola, our black Labrador mix dog, is sorely missed.
Lola, our black Labrador mix dog, is sorely missed.

A kind fellow blogger said that losing a dear pet never gets easier. Indeed it doesn’t…

Guest Blog Post: The Little Guy Who Stole Our Hearts by Debbie Centeno

da-AL Achievement, Activism, Adoption, Adults, Animal Husbandry, Animals, Anxiety, Blessings, Blogging, Boys, Celebration, Compassion, Depression, Dogs, Family, Fear, Friendship, Gratitude, Guest Posts, Heroine, Identity, Joy, Kindness, Loneliness, Love, Mental Illness, Mind, Mindfulness, Modern Life, Motherhood, Parenting, Pets, Recovery, Soul, Spirit, Strength, Survivors, Women, WordPress, Words, Working, Working from Home, Writing

Live long enough, and we’re bound to encounter challenges. With the help of a friend, Debbie Centeno (who runs this blog and this blog) uses her grief to help others…

Chewy

I never knew how much a person could grow to love their pet. I wasn’t raised with pets, other than fish in a tank. And, there’s no way you can take them out of the tank to play, pet or cuddle. I just loved my aquarium but in a materialistic way. As an adult, I didn’t think about getting a pet since I was quite busy with three children. But, after my oldest son passed away, and my two other children were no longer small kids, my daughter convinced me to get a dog. So we opted for a rescue.

Chewy as a puppy

I made a few calls to see what dogs were available to adopt. We found a place that had a mama dog who had recently given birth to seven puppies – six female and one male. The male was the runt and was rejected by his mama, but I wanted a female. That was until we met the little guy, of course. All puppies were side by side sleeping on their tummies, except the little runt who was sleeping on his back almost on top of his sisters. He was much smaller than the others. When I saw him – well, I don’t know what I felt, but I just had to have him, so the volunteer picked him up and placed him in my arms, and that was it. I was in love. I handed him to my husband, and he felt the same way. So off we were with a 5-week old 2-pound Chihuahua/Dachshund mix. We named him Chewy, and it suits him well.

Chewy buckled up in a car

Chewy is now 6-years old and 20 lbs. I can’t imagine life without him and don’t regret having followed my daughter’s advice. He is the most loving, spoiled brat ever who stole our hearts. I know he’s not human, but for me, he’s my baby.

Debbie Centaro

Debbie Centeno is a wife, a grieving mom, an accountant, and a travel blogger. Learn more about her here and here.

Guest Blog Post: Ignorance by Chuy

da-AL Animals, Anxiety, Blogging, Bravery, Cancer, Celebration, Challenge, Common Good, Compassion, Death, Decision-making, Depression, Dogs, Environment, Environmental Protection, Fear, Goal-Setting, Gratitude, Guest Posts, Happiness, Health, Heaven on Earth, Heroes, Heroine, Identity, Individuality, Joy, Kindness, Learning, Life, Life Expectancy, Loneliness, Love, Magic, Mental Illness, Mind, Mindfulness, Motivation, Nature, Pets, Reblog, Recovery, Self Esteem, Self Image, Soul, Spirit, Strength, Teachers, Teaching

Photo of Chuy dog

It took me a long time to learn this. Paz’ dog Chuy taught it to him…

Chow Dog Zen

Road to The Wonder Woods

Just because you 

Don’t Know

You are 

Beautiful,

Perfect,

And Precious to this

Great Cosmos

Doesn’t mean

It isn’t So.

  • Chuy

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Now We Are 3 (only) by da-AL

da-AL Adults, Aging, Animal Husbandry, Animals, Arthritis, Blessings, Body, Bravery, Celebration, Children, Death, Decision-making, Depression, Dogs, Family, Fear, Geriatrics, Gratitude, Happiness, Heaven on Earth, Heroes, Individuality, Joints, Joy, Kindness, Life, Life Expectancy, Loneliness, Love, Magic, Mindfulness, Modern Life, Motherhood, Mothers, Pets, Recovery, Remembering, Romance, Soul, Strength, Survivors, Teachers, Uncategorized, Women

Pierre, da-AL, Lola, K-D
Pierre a few months ago, at about 14 years old.

This morning I stayed in bed till late. I was awake, but I didn’t want to get up to a house without Pierre in it.

Yesterday I had to put my dog down. Such a gentle euphemism for murder. To put one to sleep. My dear, dear dog-man trusted me, yet I tricked him. First by lulling him into thinking it was a normal day by asking my husband to roast a chicken at home that delighted his nose and soothed his belly. But afterward a vet arrived. She knotted a tourniquet at his rear thigh, shaved an area below it, and injected a sedative. His fitful gasping evened, his pain-blinded stare softened. Amid caresses and loving murmurs, the vet administered a second shot to finish him off.

My dear Pierre at 9 months old.

But Pierre lingered within his peaceful half-sleep. So another shave. Then a third shot to a different leg. That one finally killed him.

Nicer ways exist to frame this, but my heart won’t listen to the many fine arguments for how, whether, and when.

No, I don’t know of a better way to have done it. When his kidneys began to fail, and arthritis increasingly ravaged his days and nights, I promised us two things; he’d never take another trembling ride to a vet, and he’d never be wet again (he was a Labrador mix one-of-a-kind who hated water).

Fortunately, we could afford to have a vet to visit our home for those final injections. Fortunately, I could be with Pierre, my sweetest, most uncomplicated of friendships and loves. Fortunately, he’d lived a good long life, as dog lives go.

Pierre at 8 weeks old.

All the same, this was the awfullest decision I hope ever to make.

Life is beautiful, merciless, humbling.

Pierre (right) with his twin sister.

As much as our recent time together — these months of arranging throw rugs, moving furniture, closing doors so he wouldn’t get tangled among legs or be locked into rooms or slip and not be able to get back up, all which upset him to no end — these months of his hobbled struggle to follow me everywhere and to share walks with his sisters even though he’d fall within a few steps from home — this stoic period when, despite his waning appetite, he’d eat all that my family hand fed him while I experimented with healing remedies and weight gaining foods — this era when we set ramps and nudged him up and I learned the trick to gathering his 55 pounds into my arms to navigate down — these weeks of carrying him outside to pee in the middle of the night because the shame of soiling his diapers showed naked in his eyes (debilitated kidneys need volumes more water to compensate)…

Pierre (right) in better times.

and even though yesterday was the worst, today not a whole lot better…

I am thankful for every moment we shared. Hopefully, he knew he was loved…

Happy International Women’s Day by da-AL

da-AL Activism, Adults, Celebration, Dance, Girls, Gratitude, Happiness, Heroine, Identity, International Womens Day, Joy, Music, Partying, Peace, People, Personalities, Self Esteem, Self Image, Self-Acceptance, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Soul, Spirit, Strength, Teachers, Uncategorized, Women, Working

Why isn’t this celebrated more in the U.S., the way it is in other countries?!

Here I offer a tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, an amazing lesbian woman of color who influenced even Chuck Berry.

First a brilliant performance…

Now more about her…

Which woman has influenced you most for the good?