"Connection" © 2011  ~     watercolor by Carol E. Fairbanks

                                                   An Experience of Oneness


"Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.  It is a bid for connection."
                                                                                    Dr. Renee Brown, author, lecturer and author


I have heard and read a number of times how healing it is for us to love and care for a pet. They satisfy a need for a feeling of connection with someone outside of ourselves. And the act of loving some living thing beyond our narcissistic self gets us in touch with a truth of oneness.  It raises our consciousness to a level higher than a "what's in it for me" attitude to an "I am an integral part of all life" belief.

Most our us would agree that being vulnerable and risking being hurt and rejected by our loyal and loving pets is minimal, when compared with people.  Are we confusing dependence with love?  Or are we expecting a lot more from relationships with people than we do our "furry friends"?  Whatever the case, no man has ever purred lovingly when I came home and needed support after doing a "dance" with the challenging world.

However, loving our pets do give us a chance to practice loving unconditionally.  It gives us an opportunity to experience what it feels like to be connected in a real and authentic way... a way that moves beyond those empty, unfulfilled words and unkept promises. It gives us tools to begin living without the lies we tells ourselves about our "unworthiness".  Through that connection with our "fur buddies", we can let go of the shame that drains our capacity to change and that blocks our creativity.  We are freer to grow in confidence and benefit the world with the gifts of who we are, if we are exchanging love with another living thing.  So maybe, experiencing loving relationships with our pets better prepares us to be vulnerable in loving those people relationships, that fall short of the ideal.  And undoubtedly, what the world needs is more of that "love, sweet love!"

So thank you to all the kitties and dogs and other furry beasts that bring out the very "best" in us!!!