Dogs, Waterfalls and the Collective Unconscious
A month ago, I had a rough night after a teacher was abusive toward another student. I did my best to comfort her after class. Really bugged me. Didn't sleep well. Was on the edge of waking for a while and was thinking a lot about an abused dog that I had adopted 20 years ago.
Got up around 7AM and I knew I was going to the spot where his ashes are scattered. My feeling was that there was something I was supposed to see or feel there. I don't argue with these things. I just go. I have been waiting for another spirit call and this was it.
Got in my car at 8 and was on the forest path at 830. Most of the trees were bare but those with leaves had all of them. For every 20 trees that were grey and leafless there was one covered in yellow leaves. Standing out. Hanging on. Shining. Defiant in the face of winter.
I get to the waterfalls -- two 170-foot falls side by side. Feng shui city. November was wet here so they are roaring. This is the spot where I had scattered the mixed ashes of a spouse and our two dogs. The prior time I was there was in May, a wildly spiritual experience that was even crazier than where this story is going. That visit was unsettling because they had bulldozed the spot where the ashes were and torn out the platform but now there is a new platform. And it's perfect -- made of trees that are sliced vertically and laid down so the curves fit together. Natural and fitting.
I lay down on the platform and close my eyes. Ready to receive whatever it is that I am going to get. A light rain starts to fall. It's all beautiful and timeless. I feel peace because the new platform is exactly what anyone with sense would want there. Lots of ashes are scattered there on the down low and I get the sense that loved ones of someone who is scattered there put up the money for the new platform. But I don't get much. Is that all? I open my eyes and stand up and I see it on the hand rail. A small smooth rock obviously placed there.
Laser etched on the rock is just the name "Sam" and I hold it. Feel the love on it. Think about everyone and every pet that is under that platform. Think about how heartbreak is the price of love. I put the rock back. Someone else is waiting for the platform.
I have my favorite lunch and visit a friend in that area who I don't see often enough. Drove back on a different road, the one that goes by the humane society. I have been dogless for 6 months. Still traumatized, still healing. I park and ask to see the dogs that are available. I'm not ready for another dog but like driving to the waterfalls, I feel compelled.
Dog after dog is wrong. Then I get to one, an older hound. Grey in the muzzle. Sleeping amid the cacophony. Big, peaceful, my kind of dog. The only one I would consider. I look at the name on the cage -- "Sammy"
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if we but listen. If we make the space, as you did. Thanks for this. 