Turn the lens of your camera and see life differently

This afternoon I am relaxing at home with my dogs and thinking about situations in life that made me pause, reflect and change my thoughts about the outcome.  What is the easiest way to observe difficult situations?

What makes our lives more complicated than that of our dogs and cats?  Do we see things "one way" or "many ways" but still just think inside the box?  Does our mental mind run the show at times? Do we find ourselves in discussions where we vehemently disagreed with someone and felt stuck?  Felt unable to grasp a loved one's point of view? Or been fixated on a particular problem without seeing a solution?

Well, I certainly have.  A friend recently reminded me of what a Spiritual teacher had taught. When you want to look at a situation differently, just move the lens on your camera.  Our brains are like a camera lens; we see a picture or have a thought, and snap, an idea or opinion is formed. By turning the lens just a fraction of an inch we can see things completely differently. We can change the aperture and see the situation from a different angle or lens.

While these changes are easy to make on our Nikon or Canon, they are not so easy in life. Oftentimes we are invested in needing to be right.  My animals, on the other hand, are much more straight forward.  They either like you or they don't, depending on how kind and loving you are to them.  They have no stuck camera lens;  they are in the moment.

The past few weeks have been challenging.  I have grown tired of struggling with recent events, so I decided to step back and move the lens to see situations differently.  With that one small move, I have had several "ah ha" moments that changed my perspective, allowing me to see things I had previously been unable to see. Changing my lens has allowed me to view a delicate misunderstanding with a dear friend differently.  In doing so, I could grasp their of point of view with an open mind.

I do make great efforts to be a flexible thinker.  Through the years I have learned that forming stuck opinions or judgments don't work for me or for the other person.  A subtle movement of the lens has often brought me more clarity and peace.

Recently a friend had to help his animal pass, but he was set on allowing the dog to die naturally.  However, that wasn't happening according to his plan.  He changed his view of the situation by moving his lens, and everything for his animal and himself fell into place with grace and ease.  Another friend wanted to wait to help her dog cross at a time her young daughter could be there.  Her dog had different desire and need, and passed a few days before the set appointment with the vet, an event that ended up being peaceful for both owner and dog.

Changing the lens to view life differently is not always easy, and remembering to do it until it becomes a habit is not easy, either.  Changing our lens in family situations can be particularly challenging.  Our lens can sit stubbornly in a certain spot for years because of the roles we play with one another.  Recently I had to change my lens in viewing a family member differently.  I decided to subtly move my previously stuck lens to view this person with an open heart, and it made all the difference in my interactions with them.

Imagine if all the world's religious and political leaders would be open-minded to turning their lens two degrees, if they could change the lens on their understanding of who is right and who is wrong.......would we be closer to peace on earth?  Is it possible that if they could turn their lens that they could see that there are many ways to view global situations, none of which needs to be solved with war and greed?

Wonderful Animal Messages

I have just had an amazing week and a half with many messages from four animals as well as a birthday.

First, a dear friend's dog Ty who had pancreatic cancer gave me the opportunity to see that he could handle death gracefully with honor, love, and respect for himself and his owners.  I have had two dogs that I had to assist in leaving because of their acute and painful diseases. The need to help them leave seemed unquestionable.  I had the vet come to my house and friends surrounded the dog each time in prayer and love, as I held each dog as they left.  However I had not had the experience where the animal had been kept out of pain with pain killers, and the dying process was left to the dog's own divine timing. Ty got weaker each day and left on his own accord, giving his owners the grace and time to adjust to his leaving and allow him to be the ultimate decision maker. There was no trauma for Ty.  Although sad and we all miss him, the opportunity to experience life and death on a new level has been very healing for all of us.  An important message.

My next message came from a frog that adopted me and my pool. I am in a period of growth and rebirth in my life and had just spent some time with some friends talking about changes I want to make. That night I got home and heard a very loud croaking noise that drew me outside to my pool. And lo and behold there was a frog about three inches long making an extremely loud noise on the inside of my pool. After the shock of never seeing a frog in the thirteen years I have lived here, I went inside to consult the animal spirit messages website to learn the meaning of frog medicine: 
Reminder of the common bond between all life
Transformation
Cleansing
Understanding emotion
Rebirth
Abundance

Wow....all of those messages applied to me at this time. The common bond between all life is a major theme for me. And it was so amazing to me that this creature showed up just as I was beginning to contemplate my own transformation and rebirth and understanding my emotions around it.  Also my body has been reminding me that a cleanse would be a wonderful thing to do at this time.  Each night as it got dark I could hear this wonderful frog's loud call.  Even my next door neighbors heard him.  One of my dogs is a terrier, and she loves water and anything that makes a noise and moves.  I have had to carry her in and out at night to do her business because she would love nothing more than to play with and chase the frog.

Thank you, Frog for your presence and these messages!

Last but not least, on my birthday I telephoned a wonderful astrologer who is also an animal lover.  She has a particular fondness for birds.  While on the phone with her, a huge crow flew over to my window and stared at me for at least a minute. I know that Crow medicine is magic; here is what I read about it:
"Crow medicine is the guardian of ceremonial magic and healing. Crow guides the magic of healing and the change in consciousness that will bring a new reality and dispel dis-ease or illness. Crow also takes away the old".
That message was also exciting for me since I have been working on healing my shoulder and have recently done stem cell to promote cartilage growth to help bone-on- bone.  And a little magic in life never hurts!

Thank you Crow for your wonderful message.

While still on the telephone, a hummingbird came to the window, looked at me, and stayed a few seconds. Not looking for food, just looking at me through the office window.  Hummingbird medicine is also powerful:
Ability to fly into small places and heal 
Joy
Happiness
Love
That message seemed very real and in sync with what I am striving for.  Feeling joy and happiness everyday is a wonderful goal and coupled with love, I couldn't have asked for a better Birthday message.

Thank you Hummingbird for this Birthday message!

I encourage you to notice the important messages these creatures carry for us.  Many cultures throughout the world recognize the important knowledge animals bring to us. So if you want to look them up for yourselves, here is the website:
www.animalspiritsandshamanism.com.

I will keep you posted on my changes and how these messages continue to affect my life.

Dogs, Cats and Humans packing for trips.

How much do we actually need when travelling?  I think that dogs perhaps join the male population from Mars and the cats join the females from Venus. Dogs like men could care less what they pack as long as it is something to wear.  While Cats like women want all their accouterments with them, frequently over packing and preferring that someone carry their luggage.

I guess on my past travelling adventure, I was more like a cat wishing I was more like a dog. That was the thought I had as I returned from my infamous trip to Florida and New York.  Let me set the stage for this adventure by telling you that I was flying from Carlsbad, Ca to Los Angeles and then on to Florida and soon after that to New York City for a family wedding.

I decided instead of driving the early morning bumper to bumper commute to LAX,  I would take a commuter flight from a small airport near my home to Los Angeles and on to Florida. So at 6:00 AM I got on the plane, checked in my large suitcase for the short flight to LA ready to pick up my luggage in baggage claim and trot off to Virgin American Airlines and onto to Orlando. Well to my surprise, when I went to baggage claim and waited an hour, I got the sinking feeling something was drastically wrong.  How could that be since I was the only checked in bag on that flight and was told by both airlines I had plenty of time between flights?  Especially since it was a commuter flight and most people hand carried their luggage onto the plane. Slightly panicked I spoke with a United Airlines representative and he couldn't figure it out either, but said I better run to my next flight a few terminals way.  I did and figured that my suitcase would arrive on the next flight to Orlando.

Remembering, I guess as they say "back in the day" an airline would fly your bag out on the next flight and have someone in an old van deliver your bag at any time during the night.  I was fairly confident that my clothes would arrive. WRONG!

When I got up the next morning, no bag, and I discovered through tracking that my possessions went to Memphis via FedEx and stayed put. Now this was presenting a problem because very early the next morning I was flying to New York with my sister and had no warm clothes except my cotton dress, a sweater and some over sized Uggs my neighbor had given me from Goodwill the night before. Luckily I had thrown them in my purse as I ran out the door of my house in Ca. So I borrowed a coat and pajamas from my sister and hoped a plane to NYC. Again positive that my bag would arrive that afternoon and my brother in law would have FedEx pick it up and all would be ok, just 1 one day in New York without any warm clothes.  wrong again.

So I put on my cotton dress, sweater and Uggs and headed out the door in 16 degree weather to meet some friends for lunch. By now it was Friday, the day before the wedding and that was the main reason I came to NYC and I was not a happy camper.  I called FedEx and they said they had tried to deliver the suitcase the night before but they had the wrong address and the front security people wouldn't let them in. So they promised that they now had the correct address and would deliver the suitcase sometime that afternoon. And yes they did, my suitcase was now in Florida and I was in New York. at least a little closer to me. My brother in law said he did not want to send the suitcase, but would pack a box for me of some clothes and send it to me FedEx one day air. At this point in my journey I was doubting everything. So I went that afternoon with my sister to Lord & Taylor to buy a few things to wear like nice boots, gloves, a hat, wool pants, sweaters and a suitcase to carry what I purchased and got from my brother in law back home.

Luckily my niece lent me a beautiful dress and velvet jacket to wear for the wedding.  Lo and behold my box arrived Saturday afternoon two hours before the wedding and I was able to wear a few things from my list that I gave my brother in law.  However, I truly think that men and women have a whole different clothes realty when it comes to what is necessary to pack and wear on special occasions. I won't go into what he didn't pack because I am grateful that my coat and flat boots arrived and a bra, but wow Mars and Venus are a few galaxies away from each other.

I am back home in California and my suitcase finally arrived after my sister sent it from Florida. When I called the airlines the other day to find out about reimbursement, they had a recording that said, "due too extreme weather conditions in the East and South, no calls would be answered and no messages could be left".  So travel light and hand carry every thing you want for a week and think of a dog's motto, "Wear what you need, and leave the rest home".

Fostering an animal, something I thought I would never do!!! But then again, Never Say Never

I haven't written in many months, because I had been making many decisions regarding my shoulder.... shoulder surgery or stem cell?  So here goes one of my newest animal adventures.

I surprised myself when I got the chance to foster two adorable dogs who had been dumped by their owners. In the past whenever I said the word "never" the Universe and God laughed.  The declaration 'never' was like a boomerang that often came flying back to me, so that I got to re-examine the statement of "no, never". Because of my love and attachment to my own dogs throughout the years I never felt like I could foster a dog. The thought of giving them up would be hard.  Actually, five years ago a friend found a beautiful black Labrador Retriever running along a highway in Los Angeles and brought him to my house for me to keep, because she couldn't. The dog was totally disruptive to my existing pack and my newest puppy was afraid of him, I had to give this wild black Lab up. Luckily, with the help of a friend, I found a fabulous new home for this energetic dog. That wasn't hard for me because the synergy of the pack was the most important thing and he didn't fit in.

Well, the universe surprised me and I rescued a couple of  two year old pups who had been dumped in the hills in the country where I often hiked early in the morning. I was with a girlfriend and just as we had started out for our walk when these two pups ran out from under a tree towards us. We were clearly in coyote country and in the middle of nowhere. They were scared, very very thin, lost and wanting to be rescued  My friend stayed with them while I ran to a neighbor's house and asked them to help.  They came back with me in their car and drove us and the pups back to my house. I immediately took the dogs to the Vet to see if they had a chip, which they didn't. I then took the two little girls to a groomer to be washed and combed out while I went through the neighborhood knocking on doors and posting signs. After doing this all day I took the dogs back to my house and created a safe place for them to sleep and eat. They were very content and slept quite well that night. I went out again the next day to find their owners convinced that I would find them and they would safely be back home soon. After a another day, I realized that they had truly been given up and were no longer wanted by their family. Now it was the day before I was going to have stem cells injected into my shoulder, something that I had waited for two years to do. Hmm and these pups arrived right before my surgical procedure. Coincidence or divine timing?  Was it possible they we were all being healed?

Of course my dogs were very great nursemaids and delighted that I was staying home for a few days and spending more time resting. My trio watched my every move and were happy when I took a nap and left the pups in their own room. The experience was wonderful of course, but not without challenges. These dogs were not house broken because they had been kept in cages as breeding dogs and they knew NO commands like "yes or no" or "come and sit". And of course I had no idea what their names were, so I made up two names for them. They seemed emotionally deprived, and their trust factor and ability to listen was missing, they were in their own sweet worlds for a few weeks.  But each day the two became more and more affectionate and responsive to me and others who came in my house.  They didn't play with my other three dogs or form a pack, but they watched them and as time went on they began to pee and poop outside by copying my guys.  They also learned to play with dog toys and expect frequent treats as mine did. Of course constant reinforcement and praise helped tremendously.

Each day I fell more and more in love with these two cuties and in my heart I wanted to adopt them.  But I knew they both needed to be Number one in a household, not number four and five. They were Cocker Spaniels and one person dogs. At first I wanted to adopt them out together as a bonded pair thinking since they been together they needed to stay together.  But as time went on, I found it more difficult to find a home for two untrained dogs, than one at a time. The little blonde one who I named Taffy was adopted first. She went to a wonderful home with a couple that knew the breed and wanted to train her and love her. At that time I had bonded with Taffy more than the little black dog, I thought, but in the next forty five days I completely fell head over heels in love with Nece, the black dog. We became tied at the hip and her heart opened and so did mine, she was my little baby girl that needed love and I was more than happy to give it. As her self confidence blossomed she could understand commands and even responded to her name. Amazing how one's lack of self confidence keeps one's heart and brain from functioning at a normal capacity. Uh Oh, now I was in trouble, because I knew that I needed to find home a wonderful home for her and my resistance could keep her from finding that perfect home. The universe wanted me to let go, just the very reason that kept me from wanting to be a foster mom in the first place. The good news is I worked with a wonderful dog rescue lady who found a home for both dogs and made sure they were loved, trained and cared for. Christmas Eve, Nece ended up going to a fantastic home with four middle school aged boys and she was their Christmas present. I put reindeer ears on her, coupled with a big red bow. She looked absolutely precious.

What did these babies have to offer me? I wasn't sure at the time I found them, but in retrospect they touched my heart in ways that I truly needed. And I in turn helped open their hearts, to trust again and to know they were lovable and loved.I actually really enjoyed and loved my time with these two dogs.  Would I ever do this again.  Well I have learned Never! Say Never, who knows what the universe has in store for me.

Always Learning from My Four-Leggeds!

Acceptance of what is, relaxation, and love of life are great reminders from my animals this past month.  They have recently dealt with major changes in their routines and in their eating schedules.  In addition, the cats also had to adjust to a completely different place to reside day and night.  These changes were due to  having many houseguests of all sizes, shapes, genders, ages and allergies for the past month.

The animals responded to all of this change with total acceptance.  In fact, my teachers with four legs sailed through this experience with flying colors!

Because two of my house guests were very allergic to cats, all eleven kitties stayed in their indoor/outdoor palace in the three car garage and in their 450 square foot outside enclosure.  Although this sounds quite grand and equal to a kitty Four Season’s Hotel, it was still a total change for all of them.  No wandering through the house all night, no morning affection and cat treats from me, no morning belly rubs.

When I ventured into the garage to feed them or change their kitty litter, they looked at me with total acceptance of the way it was, and continued on with their new routine.

How often, I wonder, do we accept change as quickly as animals do?

For me, a lot of change or upheaval in my daily or weekly routine takes its toll.  Is that because I want things to stay the way they are, or because I am not totally in the moment?  

When I asked my dog Bodhi, he said, “ It is what it is, and we don’t argue with what is, we accept it.  We love our routines because they make us feel safe, but we also know that if there is change, then we need to accept that.”  Wow, bow-wow, good advice!

I then asked my cats about change.  They seemed more reticent to answer, because they feel cats should be the decision makers about change.  After all, their attitude is “dogs have family and do what family wants, and cats have staff and tell them all what they want”!

BB, my head honcho cat, told me that they all knew it was necessary for them to be in the garage for a month and that was “ok” with all of them.  Subject dropped.  All the comings and goings these past four weeks have definitely been reminders that life is always moving and is constantly in flux.  My beloved four- legged teachers relaxed into the flow of it all and accepted what was.  They chose to focus not on the inconveniences, but on the fun and life enjoyment they could have in the process.

An added note, about acceptance of what is, my friend Andrew and I rescued a hurt Crow in my backyard.  Anne, Andrew and I communicated to the Crow that he would be safe and on the way to someone who could help him. The Crow went into a cat carrier very easily and was transported to a Wild Life Rescue Vet who immediately went to work on helping the injured bird.  Total acceptance of what is and complete trust!  Another great example for me!!