See complete 10 commandments list (Here)
She taught me one final lesson before she passed: Do not give up on being human.
The second injection went in, her heart stopped. My companion for the past 18yrs passed. I fell to my knees, cried, prayed and gave thanks for the life we spent together. Till we meet again, in the forest of heaven, hiking along the path, you will be missed.
My dog has come to the end of her nature. She lead a great life, a dog-life. She enjoyed everything about being a dog. Walking, running, playing, eating, sleeping, snuggling, protecting. She loved it all, a purist at being pure to her dog-ness.
Final lesson: live your nature. How many of us can say we do this? Do we live our nature, our “human-ness”? What is human-ness anyway? What does it mean to be human?
My answer is found in the the teachings of Ken Wilber’s Integral Philosophy: living a balanced life of body, mind and spirt in self, culture and nature. Simply put, a life of purpose, effort and happiness. That has been my pondering question as of late. Do I live this way and do we as a culture live like this?
This new way of thinking and questioning arose from teaching people about photography, which lead to conversations about creativity. Teaching creativity to others is hard (if not impossible) but giving advice on the creative process is far easier. Follow your heart, listen to your mind, trial and error, failure is a good thing, enjoy the task, perfection is found in the process not the outcome, and finally, enjoy your results.
This is where I feel we as a society have fallen short. We no longer ache to be human. We want (if not need) results with no concern or interest in the how, what and where of the process. Is that being human?
Much of being human is already being done for us. No need to think, Google does that for us. Why be curious? Have a question? Type it in the box and we accept the answer. Why exercise? The need to exercise has been handed over to big pharma. Why work the body when a pill can do it all for you? What need is left for the body? When is the last time that you felt soil, walked on the earth barefoot in the grass? If we can sit and stare at a screen it seems our bodies are doing all that’s left in it’s job...the bare minimum of living. Is our spirit dead? Not faith or belief, but the spirit that guides us internally throughout our life. We are people of congregation, we listen, sit and repeat, but we have no practice.
Ok, I know this is moving in a morose direction, I have not given up on humanity. What I am questioning is: what is left for us humans to do?
My answer is to create...anything. That is our purpose: to create. Why? God gave us empty space and everything is provided for us to fill it up. I love the story of creation vs evolution. My favorite part is that we, humanity, were placed here last. After all the fruit was placed on the trees and the vegetables have grown out the ground, after the clean water ran down hill from the mountain tops, Earth-Gaia-God gave us life. Creativity is the greatest gift to humanity. I suggest that we can only do three things in the images of God: love, forgive and create.
Before my dog passed she taught me this by the way she lived her life. A dog’s life of purpose is to love, have effort to explore and enjoy the happiness of a belly rub.
1993 - 2011 Kiani.Magnificent and loving friend
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