Clover's Heart

I rushed home after work to see my best friend. After placing my bag and jacket on the living room chair, I made my way to the bedroom where she lay sleeping in her little fleece bed. I slowly and gently reached out my hand to touch her back to let her know I was home. She opened her eyes, lifted her head as she struggled to arrange her 17 year old body into an upright greeting posture.

My beautiful Clover - almost blind, deaf with severe arthritis in both hind legs and balance challenges was doing well for someone in her hundreds, I told myself.

I carefully lifted my friend into an embrace. The kind of embrace you give a loved one whose time was running out. An embrace to express my gratitude for one more day with my dear, dear little friend, my most loyal companion, my dog.

Beginnings 

It seems like yesterday I had brought home this goofy, awkward puppy who stuck to my heels and sat in her water bowl. I never imagined the bond that would grow with this timid, odd, tiny creature.

I didn’t fall in love with Clover right away. She was attached to me like glue where ever I was and where ever I went. Although I attempted to be careful, I inevitably stepped on her due to her constant proximity to my feet. She woke me at all hours of the night, and just didn’t seem to get the hang of things I thought a dog should. For example, she never could climb stairs. After tripping and falling down first, second or third steps, Clover resigned herself to sit on the first step and refused to go further. That is, unless I carried her.

For more than a year I tried teaching her to climb stairs. I finally gave up. I guess clumsy defined Clover best when it came to jumping or climbing. She could jump up on furniture with 60% success. The remainder of her attempts resulted in an ungraceful thud leaving her looking up at me with a question mark in her eyes. For the rest of her years, I provided all transportation up high and low stairs. I couldn't bear to allow my friend to lose her footing and go toppling down.

I came to accept Clover’s limited eye-paw coordination. I adapted to the glue-like behavior and she stopped sitting in her water bowl. She made up for any shortcomings by looking at me with more love than I felt I deserved. She kept me company through college, deaths, relationship break-ups and much, much more. That little dog did not let me down once in 17 years.

Gentle and True

Clover never warmed-up to other dogs. Quite by accident, however, I discovered she liked rabbits. She met my friend’s bunny and they took to one another right away. Clover cared for the bunny as if he were her own. She licked him, slept near him and watched over him as a mother would a toddler. The bunny felt no fear in her presence as she only showed him kindness. From then on, Clover had bunny companions. I adopted five rescue rabbits over the course of her life. Each bunny adored her.

Even more than her kindness to her floppy-eared friends was her loyalty to me. Clover tolerated other people in my life, but never gave her heart to anyone else. Just as she kept a watchful eye on her rabbit companions, she did me. When I dated a man who treated me unkindly, she placed her body between he and I each time he came near not out of jealousy, but in a protective stance. She saw the truth about him that I came to realize and sent him on his way.

Thank You

At 17, each day with my little lady was a gift. Each day was an opportunity to be with a friend I had grown to love with my whole heart. One summer day in her 17^th year, Clover was standing next to my bed in the morning with her eyes fluttering while struggling to stay balanced. It appeared I was observing a stroke in progress. Whatever it was left her with a permanent head tilt and difficulty navigating even the shortest of distances. 

I debated putting her down then, but I read up on what ended up being diagnosed as Vestibular Disease. People with dogs with this condition wrote encouraging stories of at least partial recoveries. Clover’s health did improve for a time and she could still go for slow walks and snuggle - that is, until September. It was then she began to intermittently refuse food and was losing weight she couldn't afford to lose.

I knew it was time. I made the appointment with her vet for the next morning. That night, I held my dear friend near. Although she couldn’t hear me, I stroked her soft coat and repeated over and over how much I loved her and thanked her for always being there, for being so kind to me and the bunnies and helping me through the hardest challenges of my life. I kissed the soft fur on top of her head and drifted in and out of sleep until daylight - the day I would say goodbye to the kindest soul I have ever known. My beautiful Clover.

World Wishes

 I wish for a world of kind gestures and inclusiveness where love and compassion overpower all ills, all wrongs and all fears. The smallest, the oldest and the weakest are engulfed in belonging and no one is harmed by fear or struggles to have a voice.

I wish for a world of sharing where we support one another’s well being and the advancement of individual potential. We create, innovate and inspire with our work and through our actions.

I wish for a world of gentleness where we unite to enhance the quality of life for each individual, every creature and consider the value of even a single tree in the forest. Here, we strive for healing, inspire service and seek to help the lonely, the frightened, and lost.

I wish for a world where we grow up in love and look toward possibility - where we believe in amazingness and the exceptional. 

Changing the World

The drama occurring in the world is abounding, but that neither explains or excuses today’s inhumanity. I am not turning a blind eye to the wide scale happenings on our planet now. I, instead, am promoting another way of thinking in the face of it.

Highest Denominator

Sharing compassion and encouraging the highest human common denominator is the most powerful force for change. I believe this change in consciousness can be the only viable and lasting solution. 

Humans are hard-wired to resist and distrust change. A change in consciousness is by far the most threatening action we can take as it requires an unprecedented shift in perspective that challenges our very nature, but we can do it. In fact, it is a responsibility we each must rise to.

External

When we look to an outward source for change, we are vulnerable to the abuses and misuses of power, and we remain powerless. Then we blame this outside force by pointing our fingers like little children saying, “He did it,” or “She did it!”.

This is not getting us very far. The act of blaming is in itself angry and aggressive. Just pointing your finger at someone in anger causes both the recipient and the pointer to decay in spirit. Negativity is perpetuated. Worse even, while we are blaming, the important tasks of healing ourselves and our planet go by the wayside.

We can't change the world this way.

Internal

What we do individually is at the heart of change. We choose within each moment to transcend unhealthy patterns in order to minimize the harm to ourselves and the world around us. The responsibility for a better world is made by shifting our awareness back to ourselves. It takes a combination of courage and gentleness to accomplish this, but this - I'm convinced - is how we change the world. 

Each of us is under attack daily by society, our workplaces, our schools, social media 

and especially ourselves telling us we are not good enough, or wrong, etc. We are harmed by individuals who are wounded and often too entrenched in their own suffering to have an awareness of the pain they are inflicting. The greatest brutality, however, is that which we cause ourselves.

We can start the shift in consciousness by paying attention to our thoughts, and noticing how cruel they can be. When we walk by a mirror, we might tell ourselves we are too fat, too short, too this and not enough that. We do this so frequently, we have become numb to the assault. Next time you find yourself in front of a mirror, look yourself in the eye and tell yourself with kindness the you are wonderful. You truly are.

All Around

Take a moment to share a kindness with someone else. You might surprise them as you pause from your routine to extend a hand, or a positive word. What a special surprise! It may be exactly what someone needs to help get them through the day.

There’s an unhealthy notion in society stemming from not feeling good enough. Perhaps we fear by lifting up another, they might become too confident, too successful or rise too far above us. This plays out in situations of envy and control, but let's challenge this notion. It’s not necessary to knock anyone down. That strategy never works to anyone’s true benefit anyway. Let's instead help lift each other up.

And this is how we change the world.

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Seven Generations

There he sat quietly observing sparks crackling off the campfire. He took a toke of the pipe blend of herbs and tobacco, and paused cupping the pipe in his right hand. His eyes stared beyond the flames into the images and shapes created by their dance. Sachem took a breath as if readying himself for a grand discourse. He was still searching the flames for that final glimpse of information found in the skipping lights. He broke his gaze, straightened his back and handed the pipe to the next elder.

“The world is at the precipice of necessary decisions and changes. It is no longer a place of wise and thoughtful choices. Our ancestors taught us to consider the previous and future seven generations in each life decision. This is no longer done. Humanity serves itself-its own immediate needs. This has caused great harm to the earth and the minds of her human inhabitants.”

Sachem paused, looked down to the ground beneath him to gather his thoughts. When he looked up, his gaze went to each face surrounding the fiery pit. Those beings of light and compassion were his tribe, his friends, his family. All dear to him.

“You must know my friends that everything hangs in the balance. Decisions may lead either to the greatest destruction or the most significant paradigm shift witnessed by Mother Earth since human history. The directions where we are headed will affect the quality of life for our children in ways unparalleled. This evening, we have gathered to offer our most powerful prayers to the Great Spirit for a world where the suffering of the earth, her air, waters, four-legged and two-legged inhabitants will not be tolerated. Where greed and power are replaced with compassion and unity. Oh Great Spirit, Greatest of Mysteries, we ask for a vision of a peace stronger than the mighty tide, for a wisdom deeper than the ocean floor and for compassion to reign higher than the tallest of mountains. Let it be so.”