My client Julie lost her dog Jake in 2014, only a few months after her other dog, Blaze, died suddenly. She was devastated. These dogs were her heart, her connection to joy, and her best friends.
After a few months of life without Jake and Blaze, she decided to come to Sedona and take my Basic 1 course in Animal Communication. I was delighted to meet her in person, and honored to teach her. But I knew she was looking for more than the course offered.
She wanted an answer for the anger and sadness that she felt deep inside, a pain that wouldn’t go away.
I think so many of us can relate. Our human lives can be so empty. Then we get a dog or cat or horse or bird or iguana, and there is this brightness in our days that wasn’t there before. What is that? Whatever it is, when they die, life is so hard again. We human beings struggle to feel this brightness on our own.
Julie loved the course, enjoyed meeting me and the other students and spending time with kindred spirits. All through the weekend I was holding a sense of her grief, and hoping something would open up for her, in some way.
On the last day as everyone was preparing to leave, I suggested Julie take my pet rabbit’s photo with her. Bunny was such a wise being, and has helped so many of my students over the years. It was an intuition and I am glad that I listened.
The next day, Julie called before she flew home to say that she had had an amazing experience. She had placed Bunny’s photo on the nightstand by her bed the night before as I suggested, and when she woke up in the morning she decided to use this photo to practice communicating with Bunny.
After a short dialog about Bunny’s life with me and more, she asked my rabbit, “How am I ever going to heal all this grief?” Bunny answered with her characteristic compassion and directness, “Love again.”
This changed Julie. She felt lighter. It didn’t make her miss Jake and Blaze any less, but it gave her the courage to keep going, and open her heart to another rescue Border Collie (actually 2 :-).
Bunny’s answer was a beautiful surprise for Julie.
I can feel now how Bunny was showing Julie a truth about Love, and Life: they are both in constant flow. And loss and grief are a natural part of this flow; it is as if grief actually is another form of love, love from a different perspective.
I admire Julie’s strength, her willingness to honestly face her pain and open to it. Turning towards pain is so difficult for us human animals! We distract ourselves from our sadness and anger and fear, all day long, any way we can.
Jake and Blaze were special; they touched a depth in Julie that no other beings can access in the same way.
Even so, Rio and Bogey are beautiful in their own unique ways, and bring their gifts to Julie’s life. And they helped Julie’s heart soften, and open again to the flow of Love and Life.
Every day I walk into my office I am astounded by all there is to discover when we communicate with animals. Beautiful and unexpected truths come forward as we empathically open up to hear our animals’ experience of life in this world. Again and again. It is such an incredible learning journey!
