Hannah's brief biography

Hannah was a black Irish Setter (Setter mixed with black lab) She won people's heart with her big, brown, eyes; long, proud neck; wide head; silky, black, shiny fur with deep red highlights, feet like furry black slippers, and gentle ways. Even though most of her history was unknown, and her abuse surmised by her reactions to many things when she first came to share her life with us, she was gentle and loving with children of all ages, and was loved by them. My only regret is that her fear of cameras never subsided enough to allow me to get a photo of her that adequately shows her beauty.

Hannah came to live with me at about six years old, after showing up on the front yard of the parents of a fellow teacher from my school. There she might have remained, if it weren't for the fact that she continually protected their house from the mail lady with much dedication and determination, making it impossible for them to receive their mail. I agreed to find her a home, and I did, with me. It was obvious that she had been mistreated. Over time trust grew, and we developed a profound, loving bond. Both Hannah and I became healthier, more secure, and happier.

Hannah tells the children

Hannah's Story. A letter from Hannah about the truth of who you really are

This is the title of a children's book I have written to encourage the animal/human bond, and empower children.

This book is the first in a series I am writing with two interconnected purposes.

The first is to teach what I know to be the truth about animals: They are not "lower" less evolved species. They are intelligent, feeling beings with their own unique purpose, talents, and powers. They are essential to human identity and well-being. They teach us what is truly important, and the truth of our own goodness.

The second purpose is to teach children the truth about themselves: Children are not "unknowing" beings that are supposed to aspire to set, pre-etermined, outside standards by which they can be deemed good, or bad, according to the success with which thy conform. They only real truth is that are intrinsically good, loving, and capable. They were born knowing how to do things right, knowing what is truly iportant. They are supposed to love being alive, and be secure in their own value and uniqueness.

This is the seed of truth I want to plant in the minds and hearts of children, and I believe that bonding with animals is one of the most powerful ways that can happen.

This book is also for anyone, who at anytime, for any reason, believes they are less than the valuable, worthy being they really are.

Excerpts:

Hannah begins by telling the children,

“I would love to share the story of my life with you, because I have something very important to tell you about you.

You know what? I am a good dog, a very good dog, a special dog, but I didn't always remember that. Do you know why? Because I was with people who did things that hurt me and frightened me. They pushed me away when all I wanted to do was love them and be happy. They yelled at me, and told me it was because I was bad and wrong. I began to believe that I really could be bad, unlovable, and wrong.

Then something wonderful happened, and I remembered the real truth. I remembered that I am a good dog, a beautiful, loving dog. I remembered that I do know how to do things right, that I make an important difference in this world, and most important of all, I am supposed to feel happy. I am supposed to mostly love being alive. That is the way it was always meant to be. I want you to know that all of this is true about each and every one of you as well.
So, let me tell you my story so I can help you know how good you really are.”
This is what Hannah says about when she was a tiny puppy and being separated from her mother:
“This time it was a wise, loving message I saw in those gentle eyes, to always remember my own goodness, and to know how beautiful and important all living beings truly are. I understood that my mother and I would always be connected through love.”
The following is an observations Hannah makes about people:
“ We dogs have a way of knowing things without actually seeing them or hearing them. We feel them inside. People know things by feeling them inside the same way we do, but they usually talk a lot with their mouths, and inside their heads, so they don't notice.”

Hannah makes the following observation about her new human:

"She never hit us, or punished us, because she knew that hurting another never makes things better for anyone."

And she explains to the children:

"Everyone gets sick, and everyone has accidents, whether they walk on four legs, or two legs. Everyone is still good."

(copyrighted by Linda Fields 2008)

But, what if the trees take over?

It was said to me, "But pretty soon, all you will have is trees, and no grass." To which I responded, rather perplexed, "But that is the idea." It was at that point that I realized that others might not perceive these trees quite as I do.

To me they are Source Energy calling me, evidencing the absolute invincible Well-Being and Wonder that life eternally continues to become. They express freedom, empowerment, abundance, and the incredible power and love of Source. They tell me again and again that I am surrounded by miracles. They affirm the vitality and creativity of complete abandon, that appears to some to be, I guess, uncontrollable, and undesirable "chaos."

These trees won't be influenced or controlled by anything else. They insist on being and growing at a fantastic rate. They insist on creating as their branches proliferate and twist and turn however is necessary to follow the call of life. They grow in cracks between the cement and the house, along edges of the yard, in holes where fence posts are stuck in cement. They continue, literally, to take my breath away.

I just saw one growing on my front porch, underneath the front door, between the porch and the wall, in dead center under the door frame.



In Fall, they become bare, appearing almost dead, and the next Spring, start to grow again as much as six feet beyond in length for each branch, and each multiple trunk, becoming far beyond what they had become the previous year forming an amazing, living art of shapes, forms, light, lines, color, and the unexpected.

How could I not be in awe of these amazing, living, powerful expressions of life at its best. They truly are the Tree of Heaven.

Copyrights 2008 reserved by Linda Fields

Fred

So, let me tell you about old Freddy boy.

He is a big, old, goofy, almost full German Shephard with tall, crooked, German Shepherd stand-up ears and a good sense of who he is and what he wants. He was rescued from the desert with a smaller dog named Barney. Thus the names, Fred and Barney. He is excellent at manipulating people with the cocked head and pitiful look in his big, brown eyes. (This is a tactic mastered by most German Shepherds.) He is big, slender, lighter colored, with a long body and a long tail, and likes to tell other dogs what to do, and especially tattle-tale on them. This becomes more intense as he becomes older. Then again, he often barks just to say, "Yay Life," or "Feed us already," or "Isn't this great that you are feeding us," or " I am, and I love being" Let's just say, he likes to talk. John says he takes after his mother, me.

When he first came into the "system," he stayed at the doggy orphanage. I took an immediate liking to Fred. As soon as I divorced my husband, I took him on as a foster. (good trade) After three years he was permanently placed with a lady in her nineties who had just had a German Shepherd transition. He had a girlfriend there, a female German Shepherd. There he lived very happily, until the elderly lady made her transition, about 3 years later.

The head of the rescue organization took him back, (That is always our policy.) and had him with many other dogs. I made the mistake of allowing myself to be convinced to go JUST to see him. I fell in love all over again, and now Fred is spending his senior years with me.

Fred has his own queen size tempurpedic dog bed in the living room, is always with other dogs, and almost always with people. He often needs help getting up, walks around, not with a lot of stability or strength, but with definite determination and single-mindedness.

It is an interesting phenomenon that Fred is a lot better at getting himself up when he thinks that I am not around. When he knows I'm close by, he gets himself in a sitting up position of sorts with his back legs sticking straight forward. Then begins to honk, honk, honk, (honking is a form of old dog barking) until he perceives that I have entered the room. At that point he ceases barking, his ears drop down, he turns his head towards me, and he gives me that cocked head, helpless look mastered by German Shepherds. I then help him get his back end up so he can walk around, and I go back to what I was doing. Shortly, he will have layed back down, gotten himself propped up again, and resume honking. Sometimes he will do that 3 or 4 times within 10 or 15 minutes, just to make sure that I am on the ball.

And although I, and some other humans might perceive his physical condition as something "wrong, unfair, bad, unwanted, or sad," it really doesn't seem to bother him at all. He has an excellent appettite. He barks for his food. He lets me know if anybody is trying to steal food or eat napkins, and often gives other dogs a good scolding for reasons unknown to man. (and probably God as well) The other dogs seem only mildly and momentarily disrupted from their course of action by his scolding, but he seems to think that he has effectively put a stop to their "obviously criminal" behavior.

He just seems happy, and I know that he will let me know when he's ready to shed this physical apparatus.

So as I grow in understanding, I learn from Fred. If Fred doesn't think there's anything wrong with his physical condition, why should I? Since I am going to have the privilege of experiencing the aging and transition of so many dear fur and feathered friends, I have set the intention to learn to see all states and conditions as the Well-Being that they truly are.

My animals have been a lot of the catalyst for my wanting to increasingly experience profound knowing of the continuity of all life, the connectedness of all life, and my relationships as eternal and only becoming more. And so, I want to see the physical aging of my animal companions as neither good, nor bad, but rather just part of the journey and a perfect expression of Infinite Intelligence and Love. For how can it be anything other than just that.

I am getting that I cannot know for them, that they are choosing just what they want, and I can trust them, which is to say trust the Infinite Intelligence that they are, to know without my assistence. I also love that expression "here by divine appointment." I realize that the fact of them being in my life means they are "here by divine appointment" and their choice, and all is unfolding as it should, and I never had, and never was meant to have the power to know for them. I'm really finally learning to "Let Go and Let God."

Copyright 2008 Linda A. Fields. All rights reserved.

Maligned MagnificentTree of Heaven

What makes my property most unique is that it is also my personal self-ordanined wildlife reserve for the Tree of Heaven

( In spring they produce abundant sprays of tiny pale yellow flowers shaped like perfect five pointed stars. )

By June, in some places, overlapping leaves nearly block out the sun like a rain forest canopy.

Tiny yelow flowers float across the rippling surface of giant buckets of water for the dogs,

and fall in semi-equal spaces across giant cobwebs like stars across the sky.

(Sometimes still patterns on the blue grey cement form perfect pin-wheels.)

This tree is an amazing living creature, yet known in many places as trees from hell, or trash trees. They are usually destroyed, and never alllowed to grow into their breathtaking magnificance. I have let them grow freely on my property without direction or disturbance, and have an amazing forest of trees easily 20' and up to 40' high or more. They are exotic as their branches twist and turn. Often tiny trees grow from the branches and trunks. They are perrenial and bare in Winter. They start sprouting in March, and by June, in some places, overlapping leaves nearly block out the sun like a rain forest canopy. They continue growing through August, becoming thicker taller, and reaching out farther each year. Each tree and its multiple off-shoots can grow up to six feet a year.

In spring they produce abundant sprays of tiny pale yellow flowers shaped like perfect five pointed stars. The flowers produce a subtle, pungent and hypnotic, pervasive scent. With the wind, flowers fall through the air drifting like snowflakes and gathering along edges and in corners like snow. They float across the rippling surface of giant buckets of water for the dogs, and fall in semi-equal spaces across giant cobwebs and damp, dark soil like stars spread across the sky. On windy days spell-binding, patterns dance on cement and sparkle like jewels on the ground. Sometimes still patterns on the blue grey cement form perfect pin-wheels.

It's About Time!!

Pretty Peggy says,
"This posting business and blog business is amazingly satisfying and exciting, but I wish my mommy would feed us already."

Here We Go

This is just a test:





Now is the time for all good dogs to come to the aid of their mommy