Last night in bed, I told Eric I want our next dog to be a cuddler. Obi and Sam didn’t/don’t like to cuddle so much as lean in, and got/get annoyed if I hold on too tight (Obi would wiggle his way out, and Sam has even growled a few times to get me to back off), but Dexter was definitely a cuddler, and I’m really missing that — snuggling up next to him, warm and soft, having him stretch and curl against me and sigh — missing him.
This video of Andrea Gibson performing A Letter to my Dog, Exploring the Human Condition, captures perfectly the “why,” why I love my dogs so much, and why it is so hard to let them go when they go, “My beating heart with fur and legs.”
At the end, the video says “Every animal adopted saves the life of two, (the animal rescued, along with the animal who can now take the other’s place in the shelter for an opportunity to be adopted),” but I have to disagree with that. Every animal adopted saves the life of three — the one adopted, the one who is given space and a chance for the same, and the human animal rescued by the one adopted.
5. Two from Justine Musk, You Were Born to Be a Badass in which she says “But the first step, as Greene points out, is inward: a turning away from the voices that urge conformity, toward the truth of who you are at core,” and How to Start Creating Your Blog Community, which really has me thinking about what great work we could do together, kind and gentle reader.
12. The Soul-Shaking Practice of Surrender by Courtney Carver on Be More With Less. Anybody remember a something good list that didn’t have something from Courtney on it?! Yeah, me neither.
16. Wicked Awesome Quotes, a new site from Cigdem Kobu. I pretty much love everything she does, because she’s completely amazing.
17. And yet, the morning comes, the most amazing post from Lisa Bonchek Adams, who recently discovered her breast cancer was back, had metastasized. She ends this post with “I’m still processing. Reeling. But while I’m doing that I’m living.” She is so amazing.
18. This quote from Tulku Thondup:
For healing, it is important to have inspiration. A hopeful and inspired feeling generates enthusiasm, trust, and openness and makes it easier for us to meditate. However, we should not obsess about the meditation experience or have rigid expectations about what should happen. Grasping after results will only become a tourniquet that tightens our mental and physical energies.
19. This quote from Tara Brach, her new book True Refuge:
In the Buddhist teachings, the conscious recognition of our heart’s deepest longing is called wise aspiration. Yours might be for spiritual realization, for loving more fully, for knowing truth, for finding peace. Whatever its flavor, the awareness of what you care about energizes and guides your practice.
20. SoulPancake: Find Peace in the Zen Den. I love the looks on these people’s faces as they step inside, and the woman who says “I’m not finished yet. I can keep going.”
Someone once asked me what I regarded as the three most important requirements for happiness. My answer was: “A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could both in your personal life and in your work; and the ability to love others.”
But there is another basic requirement, and I can’t understand now how I forgot it at the time: that is the feeling that you are, in some way, useful. Usefulness, whatever form it may take, is the price we should pay for the air we breathe and the food we eat and the privilege of being alive. And it is its own reward, as well, for it is the beginning of happiness, just as self-pity and withdrawal from the battle are the beginning of misery.
For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
24. Don’t Wait from Julia on Painted Path. If you have it to spare, send sweet Julia some love and comfort.
Those of us who have the awareness, the sensitivity, the great privilege–all the things necessary to awaken and end suffering in this lifetime–need to take that opportunity very, very seriously. As the Buddha pointed out, we never know when such an opportunity will arise again.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 