I have spent the last decade searching for truth and information in areas that are closest to my heart. Health, spirituality, values, integrity, personal growth, science, neuroscience, metaphysical science, political science, and psychology. For answers I researched and read experts in these fields. Most of them held higher level degrees, from MDs to PhD’s to Doctorates, all scholars in their respective fields.
Then, the election year descended with the shocking outcome of a head-scratching president-elect, which shook me out of my logical process of learning and truth seeking. How can I make sense of this nonsensical world? Instead of going to my usual resources for answers and Intel, I went to the place that has never let me down. My heart. There I settled into the familiar and warm saddle of truth, simplicity, and a return to being human, just a human, being; heart beating, lungs breathing, feelings feeling, and in a flash my sanity returned. I felt grounded, the fear left, and since this was working in at least giving me a sense of serenity, I lingered here, detached from the crazy making world, to a warm and safely simple place.
What occurred next is the purpose for this blog. I decided to put my heart in charge of my life. My heart did the walking to a local dog rescue. Now mind you, I had vowed to never, ever, have a dog, ever again! My heart said yes to Maggie. Maggie, an elderly dog, who was sent to the rescue because her geriatric parents could no longer care for her, smiled at me with her mostly toothless mouth. She sidled up to me and diligently sat at my feet, as if to say, ‘I am here for you’. Vulnerable, homeless, without a penny, shaggy, matted and toothless, this dog found her way into my heart. Actually I was still – in my mind—on the fence when the rescue volunteer said ‘Would you like to fill out the paperwork to take Maggie home?’ My ego mind said ‘Hold on sister, I am not sure’. My heart said ‘OK’ which is what my voice echoed. The paperwork came, I filled it out, now a diligent servant to the master, my heart.
I have had Maggie now for 13 days and a lot has happened. She has taught me that all relationships are a mirror. When she peed on the carpet, I lost trust in her. I carried her wherever I went in the house, closed off doors to areas where I could not monitor her behavior, and tried management strategies, which really were controlling behaviors due to my fear that she would pee again. I purposely chose a dog who was ‘potty trained’ and older, so that I did not have to go through the anxiety and chaos of training a dog. Evidently the Universe thought I needed something else. A lesson wrapped up in dog pee. Yes, it pissed me off at first. So here we are, I am getting exactly what I most do not want The the more she behaves in ways I do not want, the more I try to control, the more she acts out-an unsuccessful loop. We were at a standoff until I changed. I realized that whatever you focus on is what you get. I was focusing on Not Wanting her to Pee, and she kept peeing. I wonder how many people put their focus on what they Did Not Want for an election outcome. Perhaps they got exactly what they did not want, which leads me to believe that they will find many lessons in the next four years. I opened the doors, I moved around the house freely without demanding that she be at my feet within my judgmentally critical eye view at all times. She stopped acting out. She calmed down. The peeing stopped. So thank you Maggie, for teaching me a few things in just a few days. Open hearts bring in more love. Trust is a two way street. Everything starts with me—or you. Whatever you believe is true. Your beliefs become your reality. I believed she would pee on my carpet again, until I believed that she would not. Focus on and nurture things and outcomes that you want. Release fear, relinquish control, ask for what you want, and trust that you will get exactly what you need. Most of all revel in the cadence of your beating heart against another beating heart, because therein lies the wisdom, truth, and lessons
