Time passes. I still awake each morning and weep, that emotion still tight in my throat, eyes wet, such missing. I cannot believe he has gone. I return with the other two, eager to open the door to see how Kali is, and see him in my mind, rise from the wood floor happy to see us, and bark. Jeez I miss that bark. The place the land is so quiet now. Where once I hindered that bark, now I long for it.
He was my teacher, that dog. Through him I learned that amazing principle: No need to tell a dog off, they do not do wrong, they do their animal instinct which is not sometimes what we humans want. But praise them, give them joy, for when they do something you as a human like, come back when you use the human word ‘come’, go down when you use the human word down, praise them for they can sense your happiness and they are attracted to this happiness. It was a lightbulb moment for me: why, I thought, surely the same applies to us humans? Praise not blame.
I notice two things happen with interaction with friends outside. A silent support, and general and kindly distance (the distance of facebook allows for a public declaration). Sweet to feel such tender kindness. Along with this if in conversation is like the Buddha and the mustard seed, I collect their stories of the deaths of their dogs/cats.
I weep more for this dog than I did for my mother. It is, as Penelope said, uncomplicated, it is pure, it is unadulterated love.
Kaliwood 