I've been on a bit of a hiatus from life the last few weeks, spending my days with my animals in the quiet solitude found in the silence of nature.
It was during this time of escape that I came to realize the best parts of my day are spent with my animals. Everything else in between is just stuff - the people, the events, the daily grind - it's just stuff. It's stuff that I have to endure to spend time with my animals.
Oh, I enjoy what I do and the people that I do it with, but the real quality time that brings a smile to my face, a light to my eyes and warmth to my heart is the time I spend with my animals. I also came to realize that if I could spend my entire day with my animals without the interruptions of all this extraneous life stuff, I would. I'd leave the stuff behind and fill my day with endless quality time with my animals in a heartbeat. It's not as though I have to be doing any particular activity with them. Just being in their presence is fulfilling enough. I love hiking with my dogs, but also I love watching their noses lift and twitch at a scent on the breeze as they rest on the deck. I especially love it when they curl up beside me while they sleep.
I love riding my horse, but I also love watching him snooze in the sun and I especially love listening to him eat. Any horse owner will tell you there is something magical about the sound of a horse crunching hay. I can't explain it, but for some odd reason that sound has a calming effect on the brain.
It is during these times of quiet observation that I gain the most from my animals. While watching their peacefulness as they partake in the simplest of natural behaviours, I am able to dissolve any negative attachments to my interactions with the world and the people in it.
Humans are such an odd species. We have the ability to create such incredible and positive things with our minds, but for some odd reason we often choose negativity and hostility. And it is a choice. How we see the world is fed by the thoughts in our minds and the emotions they invoke.
Judgment, anger, resentment, prejudice. . . these are all such toxic human emotions that are so prevalent in our daily lives. Everything we do as we interact with each other is fodder for judgment as we struggle with our personal demons. If we don't recognize that the negative voice in our head has taken over, something as simple as a greeting from a passing dog and its owner might be judged and taken personally. We don't consider that maybe this person has their own internal war they are struggling with and we are just self-absorbed. This self-absorbed judgment of an innocent comment stirs our insecurities and the negative voice gets louder. Soon it drowns out any compassionate clarity that the heart is trying to tell us. If we let this go on without recognizing that we are spiraling into a vortex of negativity, we soon see everything and everyone as a conduit of hostility. Yet we fail to see that it is our own doing and point fingers at others instead of ourselves.
This is the stuff - the negativity created in my own mind - that I mentally escape from the moment I catch sight of my dogs' happy smiles when I walk in the door. It is like they wave a magic wand with their wagging tails and hostility is replaced with joy. This is the stuff I physically escape from when I sit on the back of my horse and allow him to take me into his world, a world that completely revolves around seeking comfort and peace.
At times, I need a complete hiatus from this stuff and can only achieve this by immersing myself deep in nature with the things that bring me the greatest joy.
I highly recommend leaving technology behind and escaping into nature to quiet the mind and see the world through the peaceful eyes of our creatures of comfort.
Joan Klucha has been working with dogs for more than 15 years in obedience, tracking and behavioural rehabilitation. Contact her through her website k9kinship.com.
