Morgan’s day care is an exceptional facility. He practically jumps for joy when climbing into the car for the 10-minute ride there. Randall goes to work and Morgan goes to play all day with his friends. The few extra dollars per hour paid to its staff, thus putting it on the higher end of dog boarding kennels, is worth every cent to his owner. Sometimes there’s a birthday party with party hats for everyone and a special canine cake.
Most days are all about playtime and hanging out. Zen is one of Morgan’s best friends, his buddy who suffered a stroke some years back and, nonetheless, soldiers on while loving his life and all those who are a part of it.
Morgan is a 10-year-old golden Labrador retriever. He’s in the 17-to-21 percentile of dogs with elbow dysplasia, a lifelong painful and incurable disease that advances to chronic arthritis. His eyes reveal a certain sadness, doled out to him by a disease with a strong genetic component, as well as a keen interest in the goings on around him.
Morgan receives bi-weekly pain injections and supportive supplements to ease his discomfort. This boy hasn’t had the easiest of lives and yet, as explained in Chapter 1 of Flower Essences for Animals, he handles it well and takes it in stride:
“Animals deal directly with pain in the moment they experience it. They do what they have to do to avoid it, if possible, or to adapt to it. One ‘animal communicator’ —a person who can communi- cate telepathically with animals—attended an elderly black Lab suffering from severe arthritis and reported, ‘This dog just goes and goes. It’s not an issue for him; he simply deals with it. His attitude seems to be that this is the way it is, and he’ll try to get comfortable.’”
The book continues on this subject:
“Animals suffer physical pain due to the stimulation of the nerves. A fox with its leg caught in a trap, for example, would feel the pain of the clamp and tearing of the flesh with a full nervous-system response. A human being in that same situation would suffer the additional agony of mental anguish: ‘What if I lose the leg, how will I support my family? What about my job? Is this covered by my insurance? How will I get by in the future?’ and so on. Thus, a person experiences a much greater component of suffering than the physical response alone. Animals live in the moment, accepting what happens and dealing with it at the time, unlike we who often live simultaneously in the past and future. In this way, we could say that they deal with pain better than we do. Plus, they don’t take it so personally. Our identification with our body, and the resultant thought that this is my leg and my pain, increases the suffering many times over.”
While animals are on what might be called “an evolutionary track to joy,” we humans with the capacity to exert our free will can make quicker progress on this track. What does this mean? Sometimes, even in the midst of suffering, we can find the light shining through even the darkest “night of the soul.” We can choose in every moment to live in expansion rather than to contract. This was my experience in caring for my father in the final months of his life, as described in my spiritual memoir, From Bagels to Curry:
“My spiritual path of yoga teaches the willing aspirant not to be tossed about by life’s waves of transient emotions. True joy, the ancient science affirms, springs not from outer circumstances but from within us. This explains the superconscious bliss that I feel in my deep spine rendering sleep at night impossible, finally to be lulled back into subconscious realms up on awakening in the early morning—those precious hours that hold their breath before exhaling their way into the skittish dawn.
“In these trying days, that joy lives within the marrow of my soul.”
Now let’s return to Morgan’s story.
Last week for the first time, he was given Orange Flower Essence. For animals who are older or suffering from difficulties with the aging process or other bodily pains, this flower essence can give them a boost of enthusiasm that resonates with their natural, unfettered state. Morgan’s dosage was minimal: 2 drops in his fresh morning water bowl to lap up throughout the day. Some animals respond beautifully when receiving their essences with food, even though it’s recommended to take a flower essence on an empty stomach. In Morgan’s case, it was both options.
On Day 2 of Orange Essence, the kennel staff noticed a difference in his behavior, without being told about the flower essence. More pep! He’d been placed in the room with the younger pups as usual. But this day, he stretched out his paws and lowered his head for the younger dogs, gesturing that he wanted to play. Perhaps he was getting in touch with his own inner puppy!
His owner observed when letting him out of the car at the entrance to the day care center, “Morgan pranced! He didn’t hold back and cower like he usually does. Normally, he walks with a limp. There was no notice of him limping. Also,” Randall added, “He’s drinking more water these last 2 days.”
And what about us humans? We too may suffer from chronic physical ailments, incurable diseases, or a vast array of emotional difficulties and losses.
In America, we tend to think in a linear fashion: I am happy or I am sad. In India, a complex country with a deep spiritual soul, the line of thinking is often one of “I am happy and I am sad,” concurrently. Is it possible, then, that we too can experience joy and sorrow in the same moment?
Morgan’s story illustrates that, even in times of discomfort and dis-ease, we can tune in to the joy of our own soul, thus reaching that level where there is only comfort, ease – and even bliss.
