a palliative client told me yesterday to imagine a giant tree trunk and call it faith and all of the branches that are straight and crooked and big and small and reaching towards north, south, east and west are all of the different religons and the millions of leaves on all of the branches are people and the deep roots holding that tree strong and nourishing all of the leaves is god. for those that believe, belief is in the unseen root of the tree.
and that is why i love my job... people are amazing to me.
we are all on the same journey..for some it is longer or shorter but the end is the same....we are eventually going to the very same and final place, the very last moment of our life on earth days.
what comes after?
none of us knows...could be nothing or everything.
but we do know that we do have today and we can hold precious and take very good care of right now. and that is a choice we can make..just to live every day well.
and this is why i love rescue..the animals continually amaze me too. they come here old, sick and betrayed. we give them kindness, patience...some meds, good food, clean beds, toys to play with and they will find some joy in their day.
if we choose to, we all can feel joyful today.
Thanks for sharing that Carol! By interesting coincidence, lately I've been thinking about the joy in one of my rescued senior dogs.
Overall I think she is happy and content living here with me and my animal family. We are pretty laid back and sort of consistent, and I just let her be and don't ask much of her.
But she also has moments of what I think is joy. Her eyes sparkle, her head is up, her tail is curled, and she just looks joyful to me.
Sometimes it's as simple as when she toddles down the sidewalk towards me when I have let them out during my lunch break.
Or the freedom to go in and out as she pleases when we are home. I thought she would like to be outside more, but she tends to wander in and out a few times before settling down on the grass if we are outside.
And even when I am behind her and can't see her face, there's a spring in her step as she hustles into the house, determined to get the best dog bed, even though the other dogs don't care, and there are 2 beds the same.
Or when she bounces her front paws up and down when the other dogs are romping in the yard. None of them have figured out interactive play yet, but my best friend has a new puppy so I see future joy in all of our lives!
She also looked joyful when she chased one of our cats - bqoth in slow motion.
And I know the warmer weather and more outside time is making all of us feel better and less achy!