Day: April 22, 2016

I received this message this morning from Becca, she sent me $30 towards the purchase of my  new monochrome camera:

“Your books and blog gave me hope in some of my darkest hours. As I watched your photography grow and the risks you took I felt a change in me and decided to work on myself and after much soul searching and honest hard work emotionally and financially I am in a better place. I am enjoying the new photos from your new camera. I hope this helps towards the camera or whatever you need it for. Many thanks, Becca.”

It is an extraordinary experience to be thanked for taking money from someone, there are those who grasp the beauty and meaning of it, and those who do not.  There are some who are drawn to generosity and some deeply fearful of it.  I know what she means, I feel the same way about her.

Becca and I are more alike than she perhaps knows, and we have a bond that cannot really be broken.

She was in a very dark place once, as I was, and she was brave and strong enough to choose a different story for herself. She found work, she found writing and photography, she found the love of her life, she is soon to get married. We were walking on parallel paths.

Becca did the hard and sometimes dirty work, she has unleashed the creative spark and her writing is beautiful and evocative, her photographs rich and warm. Her soul shines in the way of someone who has finally, after some time in the shadows, found a soulmate to share the crisis and mystery of the world.

When the awe and the zeal and the love and connection of the human mind, of the yearning to know, come together, a new sense of what it is to be human is awakened.  This is what I have learned, and I think she has learned: You must activate your own imagination, and learn to shed the fears and anger and cruelties and alarms of the wider world, no one can do that for you.

But once you do take the risk and the leap of faith, then one doorway after another opens up, a rich feast of possibility. There is  always the possibility of fiasco, always the chance of bliss – hope instead of despair, light instead of darkness, love instead of loneliness, compassion in the place of anger.

You have found your zeal, entered your authentic life, answered the call to adventure, opened up to new and rich experience. Revolution doesn’t have to do with tearing something down, it has to do with bringing something forth. This is Becca’s gift to me, and to the world.

Every now and then, I turn around and half-expect to see Lenore behind me in my office, sleeping contentedly on her couch under her own portrait. The portrait is still there, but Lenore is gone and I think of her often, and sometimes get a stab in my heart. I am lucky in dogs, I have had one wonderful dog after another.

Lenore, the Love Dog was very special to me. She always loved to be near me when I wrote and was fond of her own private couch, she slept on it all of her life. When I had given up on the thought of love, she kept love alive for me, until the real thing arrived.

She was the most gracious, loving and companionable of creatures, as Labs can be. Thinking of you Lenore, I believe you did what spirit dogs do, you marked a passage in my life, and them moved on to brighten the life of another human. Thanks for being my dog.

Many of you asked me to keep you apprised of Red’s progress, and I will. I was much impressed with Dr. Suzanne Fariello of the Cambridge Valley Veterinary Hospital, I’ve always been comfortable with her, but I thought she did a great job diagnosing Red, and coming up with a comprehensive, balanced and modern plan.

This morning, Red returned to his normal self, active, alert, moving much more fluidly. I’ll take a video of him later this morning. We have him anti-inflammatory medication yesterday, a dose of advanced joint medication and he had his first laser treatment, I could see immediate and dramatic results from that.

Nicole, a vet tech, administered the laser treatment, we all had to wear protective glasses (including Red), it took about 20 minutes. More treatments are scheduled for next week, four in all. Red was in visible plain the last few weeks, liming, lying around in a much more sluggish way than he ever  has and than border collies do. He was very stiff and slow standing up.

Today, there was none of that. I’m taking it easy with him, reducing his work load, but still, it is an impressive change for the second day of treatment. I think the anti-inflammatory pills and the laser treatment were the biggest factors. I’ll keep you posted. Vets are not miracle workers, arthritis is not ultimately reversible, but Red can have his work life and general life greatly prolonged. He has returned to his old, eager and active self for now, fingers crossed.

Vets take a lot of heat these days, there are hundreds of thousands of online diagnosticians and conspiracy theorists out there, but I trust vets, they are the ones i turn to when I need medical advice, not people on Facebook. Six years of training and days of intense and real time experience count for me. And no, they do not get rich.

There is a trend towards corporatized veterinary care, as the Corporate Nation is swallowing up free people and individuals everywhere. I am glad to live in the country, where vets like Suzanne can still run their practice the way they wish to. More updates to come.