OLD DOGS

[Carol Anne Kincaid~Paradis]

Nelson Mandela “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in 99 prison.” –Nelson Mandela It’s all in our hands, how we choose to view ourselves, our circumstances and what we choose to do about it. Everybody around us has an opinion to make. Everybody around us has a suggestion to offer. And most often with the best intentions! But if we end up listening to what everybody else has to say, we may forget to do what we are inspired to do, what we are meant to do. In the noise of other’s suggestions and opinions, don’t lose your voice. Take good advice but also learn the art of navigating through that advice to follow your own journey….do due diligence with your head and heart, make an informed decision…don’t let life overwhelm you, you can do this today. you can do the hard things. you can find strength. you can realize purpose. you can….just do one thing one simple step in a new direction. be brave, be bold. breathe….!!

Old dogs don't die; they can't. They've merely run up ahead; they're waiting for us just out of sight. Close your eyes late at night and you may smell his musky odor, or perhaps hear his snuffle from the next room. Pay attention and you may feel his nose on your hand or the back of your calf. When your final day comes, you can go on to meet him; he's never left you and never will, and when you close your eyes for the last time, you'll open them again to be met with his Bright eyes and wagging tail.

Old dogs don't die, at least, not those dogs who take the biggest chunks of our hearts with them when they leave us. Those dogs are inextricably part of our souls, and they go with us wherever we are. Though we may not see them, we know they're there because our heart is still beating; we still breathe, and those of us who have been truly touched by a good dog know our lives really started the day we met them.

Magnificent dogs don't die. They shepherd our dreams and only allow the good ones through the gates of our consciousness. They watch over us much as they did in life, and that moment when we step just barely outside of death or disaster, it's because they moved our feet or they stopped short in front of us as they did in life.

You see, a good dog is something only given to a few people. They are a gift from the universe and, though they're with us only a short time, they never really leave us. They are loyalty and love perfected, and once we are graced with that sort of love we can never lose it. We merely lose sight of it for a time, and that is our fault; for how can love like that ever go away?

It can't. It can't, and it never will. For these brave souls trade their hearts for ours, and they beat together beyond sickness, beyond death. They are ours, and we are theirs, for every sunrise and every sunset, until the sun blazes its last and we once again join the stars.

By Leigh Curtis,
K9 Companion Dog Training
Port Jervis, NY

Photo credit: Pete Thorne

Love  will always be the answer. Good Morning Stay Safe Happy Trails....