Pets … A Love Story

Cuddle attack! This is for all you pet lovers. Our pets are part of our lives the same way that our kids are. We are the ones that will do some of the strangest things and think that it is totally normal. Talking to our pets – those who don’t have them look at us like we are nuts – for us totally normal. Getting holiday gifts for our pets – people are looking at us like ‘what are you doing’ – for us it is part of the life.

People who have pets, whether it is a horse, a cat, a dog or a mouse those animals play a vital role for us. They are the ones that will listen when we are down, remind us that we do have value by simply showing their love.

Now some people have told me that some animals shouldn’t be allowed to be a pet and there are some that are very dangerous to have as a pet. While I love cats and have had them for most of my life – I wouldn’t take a cougar as a house pet. There are reasons for this. Each animal type has a specific role to play in the eco system.

We have seen what happens when we take an animal to the near extinction point. We have done it with sharks, with some bears, some wolves and it throws that eco-system into total chaos.

When the fear of the “Great White Shark” came about partially due to the movie “Jaws” people felt that the “White Pointers” were to dangerous to keep in the ocean and when they went down in population – everything went to 9 points off natural. Our oceans became unhealthy. When we started to protect them and they started to come back our oceans got healthy.

Often the thing that scares us the most are the apex predators. They are at the top of the food chain. Without those animals we end up with some other animals will get out of control. This can cause the balance to be lost and we end up in a bigger problem.

Now we need to understand that things are here for a reason. The reason for the rattle snake – helps keep mice and other rodents under control. By doing that they are preventing the mice and other rodents from getting the fleas that cause “The Black Death” and killing many of the people. The reason that we have the cats, to help keep the rodents and the weaker of the birds under control. The reason that is needed is so there isn’t an explosion of animals that are ill.

5 Fingers – 5 Ways to calm down

This is going to sound so strange but trust me when I say that this works wonderfully. I take classes at the VA Medical Center near my home and this was taught to us as one of the ways to calm down and ground ourselves.

The way that this works is simple – take a deep breath in and slowly let it out. Now we have on average 5 fingers (there are some that have less and you can still do this but it was taught to us this way.)

As you slow your breathing look at your desk or around you. If you are alone you can say it out loud or if you are in an office say them mentally. What are the 5 things that you can see? Doing this sitting at my desk right now, it is the laptop, the keyboard, a container with large safety pins, a candle, and the external hard drive.

OK, what four things can you hear? Doing this right now, the foil from my husband making dinner, my cat stretching, the video I am listening to, and the keys from I am typing on.

OK, what three things can I smell? Dinner, the candle and the fresh air coming in my window. OK two – what two things can I feel? My computer keyboard and the floor beneath my feet and finally one. What can I taste? The coffee that I drank.

When you do this it sounds and feels strange but you will feel relaxed due to the simple fact that you have to come up with the things that you are seeing, hearing, feeling and using your senses on.

You can change it up and it gets to be so relaxing due to the fact that your stress level will come down when you do this. Try it you might be surprised on how well it works.

Charon’s Coins

Whether you have seen “Clash of the Titan’s” or are a fan of history, you have heard of the old legend of having to pay the ‘Ferryman’ to get to the other side. There have even been rock songs that will tell you to not pay the “Ferryman”.

Who is the Ferryman? Why would you have to pay him to get across to the other side? The Ferryman is from Ancient Greek mythology. His name is Charon and his job was to ferry the dead from one side of the River Styx to the other side. The people’s souls that would be ferried across were the ones that had received the rites of burial. (1) In payment and part of the ritual a coin was placed in the dead’s mouth.

Charon’s coins

Other people would do coins on the eyes. Again this was to pay the ferry man so their loved ones could get to the other side and have a chance in Asphodel Fields, where they would be judged. They had a chance to go to the Elysium where the sun always shone and they would have a blessed life or they could be sent to Tartarus for punishment. (2)

So why did we stop paying the Ferryman? When the belief in one God came in the old gods were not worshipped anymore and over the ages they became legend. Legends become myth and somethings stopped.

For me, I would want a coin on each eye to pay the ferry man. I believe in the old gods and often find that the balance that the ancients had was better than one where you have to be pure and believe that one god is right or they are going to hell.

In Ancient Egypt, you had to have a scroll that had magic spells to be able to get through to where you had to have your heart weighed in order to pass on to paradise or your soul was eaten. The scroll was known as the book of the dead. This later was done on the walls of the tombs. You had to have your heart weighed against the feather of Maat.

The Feather of Maat

Charon

Sources

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Charon-Greek-mythology

https://www.mylearning.org/stories/ancient-greeks-everyday-life-beliefs-and-myths/418#:~:text=The%20Greeks%20believed%20that%20after,(which%20they%20called%20Hades).

Truth be told…

The truth be told we need a world where the kids in schools are taught what really happened and not ‘alternative facts.’ We need a world where those who are born with challenges are treated with respect. We need a lot of things but the most important thing we need to have is the truth.

Why is the truth the most important thing? The truth shows that a person can be trusted. If you put 7 people in a room, say for an example a line up and the person that is going in to point out who attacked them, that person has to be able to tell the truth if they want justice. If a person is going out with some friends and they are planning to drink, we need to know that if they say that another person is their designated driver then the driver is going to be sober.

The easiest way to lose someone’s trust is not be truthful. If you want a person to trust you then you should be respectful enough to tell the truth. Sometimes there are challenges with it. If a person is known to be truthful then when they call you up and say they need a ride home because they are too drunk to drive, then you can go to where they are have them give you their keys and take them home. On the flip side if a person is known to be less than truthful and they call – you may not believe them and two things could happen, you have just protected yourself from something severe happening or they could get arrested for driving under the influence.

The Declaration of Independence starts off with “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (1) This is one of the most important documents that the United States has and it starts with a truth statement.

While the United States has made mistakes, the truth can set us free if we take the blinders off. Go back to the image of the line up. 7 people standing in a row. What if the victim is blind? They would have to go off the sound of the person’s voice. Would they be a good witness? They could be. They use their senses differently than we do so they may be able to tell a person by their voice alone.

Some think that people of different colors are less important and less valuable than others but that isn’t true. We all have the same things in us. The same star stuff that created the carbon, oxygen, the basic building blocks of life is in all of us. Our skin color makes us no different than another.

Sources

1 https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript