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- Feb 19, 2001
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Living Love
If you ever love an animal, there are three days in your life
you will always remember...
The first is a day, blessed with happiness, when you bring
home your young new friend. You may have spent weeks deciding on a
breed. You may have asked numerous opinions of many vets, or done
long research in finding a breeder. Or, perhaps in a fleeting moment,
you may have just chosen that silly looking mutt in a shelter--simply
because something in its eyes reached your heart. But when you bring
that chosen pet home, and watch it explore, and claim its special
place in your hall or front room--and when you feel it brush against
you for the first time--it instills a feeling of pure love you will
carry with you through the many years to come.
The second day will occur eight or nine or ten years later.
It will be a day like any other. Routine and unexceptional. But, for
a surprising instant, you will look at your long-time friend and see
age where you once saw youth. You will see slow deliberate steps
where you once saw energy. And you will see sleep where you once saw
activity. So you will begin to adjust your friend's diet--and you may
add a pill or two to her food. And you may feel a growing fear deep
within yourself, which bodes of a coming emptiness. And you will feel
this uneasy feeling, on and off, until the third day finally arrives.
And on this day--if your friend and God have not decided for
you, then you will be faced with making a decision of your own--on
behalf of your lifelong friend, and with the guidance of your own
deepest Spirit. But whichever way your friend eventually leaves you---
you will feel as alone as a single star in the dark night. If you are
wise, you will let the tears flow as freely and as often as they
must. And if you are typical, you will find that not many in your
circle of family or friends will be able to understand your grief, or
comfort you. But if you are true to the love of the pet you cherished
through the many joy-filled years, you may find that a soul--a bit
smaller in size than your own---seems to walk with you, at times,
during the lonely days to come. And at moments when you least expect
anything out of the ordinary to happen, you may feel something brush
against your leg--very very lightly. And looking down at the place
where your dear, perhaps dearest, friend used to lay---you will
remember those three significant days. The memory will most likely be
painful, and leave an ache in your heart---As time passes the ache
will come and go as it has a life of its own. You will both reject it
and embrace it, and it may confuse you. If you reject it, it will
depress you. If you embrace it, it will deepen you. Either way, it
will still be an ache.
But there will be, I assure you, a fourth day when---along
with the memory of your pet---and piercing through the heaviness in
your heart---there will come a realization that belongs only to you.
It will be as unique and strong as our relationship with each animal
we have loved, and lost. This realization takes the form of a Living
Love---like the heavenly scent of a rose that remains after the
petals have wilted, this love will remain and grow--and be there for
us to remember. It is a love we have earned. It is the legacy our
pets leave us when they go. And it is a gift we may keep with us as
long as we live. It is a love which is ours alone. And until we
ourselves leave, perhaps to join our beloved pets--it is a love that
we will always possess.
~ Written by Martin Scot Kosins ~
If you ever love an animal, there are three days in your life
you will always remember...
The first is a day, blessed with happiness, when you bring
home your young new friend. You may have spent weeks deciding on a
breed. You may have asked numerous opinions of many vets, or done
long research in finding a breeder. Or, perhaps in a fleeting moment,
you may have just chosen that silly looking mutt in a shelter--simply
because something in its eyes reached your heart. But when you bring
that chosen pet home, and watch it explore, and claim its special
place in your hall or front room--and when you feel it brush against
you for the first time--it instills a feeling of pure love you will
carry with you through the many years to come.
The second day will occur eight or nine or ten years later.
It will be a day like any other. Routine and unexceptional. But, for
a surprising instant, you will look at your long-time friend and see
age where you once saw youth. You will see slow deliberate steps
where you once saw energy. And you will see sleep where you once saw
activity. So you will begin to adjust your friend's diet--and you may
add a pill or two to her food. And you may feel a growing fear deep
within yourself, which bodes of a coming emptiness. And you will feel
this uneasy feeling, on and off, until the third day finally arrives.
And on this day--if your friend and God have not decided for
you, then you will be faced with making a decision of your own--on
behalf of your lifelong friend, and with the guidance of your own
deepest Spirit. But whichever way your friend eventually leaves you---
you will feel as alone as a single star in the dark night. If you are
wise, you will let the tears flow as freely and as often as they
must. And if you are typical, you will find that not many in your
circle of family or friends will be able to understand your grief, or
comfort you. But if you are true to the love of the pet you cherished
through the many joy-filled years, you may find that a soul--a bit
smaller in size than your own---seems to walk with you, at times,
during the lonely days to come. And at moments when you least expect
anything out of the ordinary to happen, you may feel something brush
against your leg--very very lightly. And looking down at the place
where your dear, perhaps dearest, friend used to lay---you will
remember those three significant days. The memory will most likely be
painful, and leave an ache in your heart---As time passes the ache
will come and go as it has a life of its own. You will both reject it
and embrace it, and it may confuse you. If you reject it, it will
depress you. If you embrace it, it will deepen you. Either way, it
will still be an ache.
But there will be, I assure you, a fourth day when---along
with the memory of your pet---and piercing through the heaviness in
your heart---there will come a realization that belongs only to you.
It will be as unique and strong as our relationship with each animal
we have loved, and lost. This realization takes the form of a Living
Love---like the heavenly scent of a rose that remains after the
petals have wilted, this love will remain and grow--and be there for
us to remember. It is a love we have earned. It is the legacy our
pets leave us when they go. And it is a gift we may keep with us as
long as we live. It is a love which is ours alone. And until we
ourselves leave, perhaps to join our beloved pets--it is a love that
we will always possess.
~ Written by Martin Scot Kosins ~
