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I’ve been working on this portrait of Marshmalow ( I know Marshmallow, the word has two “L”s, but this is how her human spells this kitty’s name) for a long time.

Each time I thought I might be close to finished, there was something else that wasn’t quite right. I’d work some more on it and walk away, but when I returned I could see that something else needed to be done.

The hours and everything else around me disappears when I paint. Saul Bellow said, “Art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness which characterizes prayer, too, and the eye of the storm…an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.”

So, she’s still not finished, but I’m going to let her rest awhile. I’ll be starting on two other paintings today – it’s nice to have more than one going at a time. I can’t think of a better way to spend this very cold February day.

The Human – Canine bond might be stronger than you think. Did you know that dogs are the only species other than humans to develop lethal prostate cancer? Or that canine breast cancer spreads to dogs’ bones just as it does in women? Or that the most common form of canine cancer, osteosarcoma, is one that afflicts teens?

A new field called Comparative Oncology has emerged and it brings together canine oncologists, medical oncologists, the pharmaceutical industry and academic research facilities who are looking at how information about canine cancer can shed light on human cancer, as well as looking for new treatment and compassionate care for both.

Surprisingly, in the document I read, cancer prevention is a relatively new concept, unlike the one of prevention of heart disease that’s been around for decades.

Cancer prevention for both humans and dogs (and other species) is relatively simple.

1. Eat/feed a species-appropriate diet that includes whole, fresh foods.
2. Reduce exposure to toxins, including commercial pesticides and household cleaners. (They reside in brand name products you’ve come to know and trust through years of brand identidy created in the golden age of advertising.)
3. Reduce stress. Your stress trickles down to those around you, be they human or animal. Yoga, meditation, Reiki, exercise, knitting, reading – any of these enjoyable pursuits can extend your life, and the life of your pet. (well not the knitting or reading part so much except by extension.)

Take a look at the Organic Consumer Association website for tips on finding real eco-friendly (not just what the label says) and safe cleaning products.

First Dog Barking, a magazine about the traveling pet lifestyle debuts today! This month’s issue features the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Check it out and don’t forget to visit the Health and Nutrition page for tips on massage – great for easing pre-show jitters – and every day! See you there!

I participated in a wellness gala yesterday at the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship. Although I signed up to represent the field of Animal Reiki, I had many people who didn’t even have pets stop by clamoring for a treatment for themselves. The guests ranged from those who had never heard of Reiki, to those who kind of, sort of had an idea of what it’s about, to practitioners of all three levels and those who had received Reiki treatments in the past. A lot of questions came up, like:

Did you channel that energy from my knee into the ground?
Whose energy was I feeling?
Will you tell me information about the energy you sense during my treatment?
Can you make my headache go away?

For me as a practitioner, it’s best to keep things as simple as possible. I describe Reiki as a subtle vibrational practice that promotes systemic balance through light touch. For newcomers, that’s enough. When people get into it more deeply, they want to know more.

The most important thing, I think, is to make it very clear that I am not “doing” anything. Rather, I am “being” in a certain space. Rather than “channeling” energy, I am the channel for it.

A “channel” according to my very well worn desk copy of Funk & Wagnall’s Standard College Dictionary is:the course through which anything moves or passes. Being a channel is a somewhat passive activity.

“Channeling” is described as: to direct through a channel. Channeling is an active pursuit.

There’s a clear difference.

Because I am in a meditative state of being (one that aspires to non-duality), I am letting whatever happens happen. Because I am not “doing” I do not call myself, as many do, a healer. I am merely being in a state that allows the universal energy (that exists within everything and without which nothing would exist) to awaken in the recipient for whatever healing is needed. The recipient starts to heal from within.

Some refer to this energy as having an intelligence of its own, as it heals what is needed, despite what the practitioner or the recipient may expect. But the notion of energy having intelligence, as if it’s a living, breathing thing can be confusing. I like to think of the body as also having intelligence, and taking the energy to heal whatever needs to be healed.

So to answer some of the questions I got yesterday:

No, I did not channel the energy into the floor. The energy goes where it will.

The energy is just energy. I may or may not feel sensations as a practitioner, and the recipient may or may not feel sensations as a recipient. We like to feel something as evidence that something is going on, but it’s not important.

No, I don’t tell information about my experience with the energy. Everyone experiences it differently. Just because I may feel a surge of energy in one place or another doesn’t mean another practitioner will feel the same thing. If I make up a reason (”what’s up with that knee?”) the recipient may start to worry unnecessarily. I’m not all-knowing. There are, however, practitioners of different disciplines, like intuitive medicine, who do this. I do not.

It was a great day and I was happy that so many customers left feeling relaxed and satisfied.

As the clock struck 5:45 and all of the practitioners were supposed to be packing up, a woman who had been patiently waiting asked if she could get a treatment. I told her I was sorry, but we had strict orders to stop all treatments by 5:50 and there wasn’t time. But the woman persisted. She had worked the event too, as a cellist. Her head hurt and her hands were sore. I just couldn’t deny her request. I asked her to sit and relax. She had never had a Reiki treatment before but she had received treatments from other practitioners who work with energy so I knew I could get right into it without worrying about explanations.

We ignored the noise around us and I spent as much time as I could with her. I knew it wouldn’t take long to pack up and I continued until just about six o’clock. When I finished, I touched her shoulder lightly and told her that whenever she was ready, she could open her eyes. I apologized that I didn’t have more time and that I hoped I had helped her at least a little bit.

The woman smiled broadly and asked for my card. I’d received many kind words and hugs throughout the day, but for some reason, helping this hard working woman was most gratifying to me. My answer to the final question about this woman’s headache was: I don’t know.

But I’m glad to report that her headache did go away!

When I first learned Reiki, I was taught to imagine a pink bubble surrounding myself, for protection, before starting a treatment. I work with animals, and I found that by imagining this bubble around myself, I felt somehow separated from them. Didn’t they need protection too? So I visualized a different pink bubble around them, as well, so they wouldn’t feel left out. But now I felt even more separated from them than ever. The only way I could think of to remedy this was to imagine one giant bubble that would surround both of us, in our own individual bubbles.

I didn’t stop to think how ridiculous this was, until one day when I said it out loud.

I defend myself, though. Feeling first hand the power of Reiki as a new student, it was easy to accept everything my teacher told me. Some of the concepts I sort of “got”, and others I could accept as having their basis in some ancient mystical belief. My teacher did encourage questions – but the information as I heard it was so vague and incomplete, I couldn’t formulate what it was I had to ask.

And so here’s the thing. Reiki is not an ancient mystical practice. It was developed in the first half of the 20th century by a Buddhist monk and martial artist. The practice started out with only one of its elements, the precepts, or guidelines for living, and developed from there in a very logical and organic way to incorporate the other four elements: Breathing techniques or meditations, Symbols and Mantras, Attunements, and Hand positions, or hands on healing – the element most closely associated with Reiki today.

So if you go back to the start, to the precepts, the cornerstone upon which Reiki is founded, you will see that one the precepts is this: Do not worry. If you do not need to worry, then why do you need protection?

And if you understand a key component of Buddhist thought which is also inherent in Reiki called non-duality, you realize there is no separation between you…and anything else. If there is no separation, no “other” then what is it that you need protection from?

You don’t need to draw symbols for protection. You don’t need to create imaginary bubbles. You don’t have to avoid standing near a clients’ feet because you’ll be in the direct path of that person’s negative energy. That’s just plain silly! You don’t need to create danger where there is none.

I don’t believe in superstition. I don’t believe it has a place in Reiki, nor does it serve the Reiki community. Reiki is a spiritual practice that helps one strengthen their own energy (or ki, or chi as it’s referred to in many eastern practices) that promotes healing through meditation and allows one to reach his or her own true potential. No hocus-pocus!

Dogs and humans have more things in common than one might suspect. For instance, there’s a tendency for some people, myself included, to sometimes live mostly in the mind. We are the dreamers and the thinkers – and as a result, sometimes more earthly, fundamental things get away from us and we become scattered and not as optimally functional as we could be due to our cerebral nature.

Animals too can become ungrounded for a variety of reasons. Many dogs are so busy charging forward through life that they are virtually unaware that they have a hind end. This may sound strange, but many an agility or herding competitor has come to observe this when trying to teach dogs to move in ways different from what they are used to.

Small dogs (as well as other animals, like bunnies) are not always as comfortable as we’d like to think when we, following our instinct driven by a desire to comfort infants and toddlers, pick them up. They literally feel up in the air when they lose the physical connection to earth.

The mind-body connection is important for humans and animals and while the causes may vary wildly, we are all susceptible to getting out of balance in one way or another.

As a person who makes her living walking dogs and caring for animals, I find myself devoid of human contact for much of the day, and not having any sort of analytical task at hand (other than navigating the intricacies of animal behavior and driving both of which for me have become pretty much second nature) I find myself with plenty of time for thinking. This is both a luxury and a potential danger. Living in one’s head too much throws one off balance.

Meditation is always helpful. To calm the mind helps relax the body. When both are working in unison, one functions better.

I’m a firm believer in chiropractic. Ask anyone who’s had a great treatment how they feel afterward – not only physically, but mentally and spiritually.

In addition, I’ve added several other tools to my head-in-the-clouds-fighting arsenal. I’ve visited a homeopath in town who was able to recommend a variety of things (homeopathic and herbal remedies and flower essences) specifically to help ground me. I’ve learned that no matter what the body/mind/spirit issue is that there’s a homeopathic app for it.

I’ve taken up ice skating. Having to think about how I move (when I haven’t moved in such a way in a very long time) is challenging on a mind-body level, again integrating the mind with the body, rather than letting my thoughts carry my head farther and farther away from my body and my being. There’s a real joy and sense of accomplishment at how much more quickly I’ve picked up on moves like lifting one foot off the ice while balancing on the other than I ever thought I’d achieve in such a short time.

I’ve returned to my artistic roots with a fervor – this time using a new medium, pastel. Combining my art background with my fascination with the animals around me not only helps me improve the coordination between eye and hand, but also the connection between thinking and doing. Learning to use a new medium is helpful in breaking real ties with the past.

As for animals, well, we could invest in some art lessons for them, but we can also use hands-on therapies like massage and Reiki to increase their body-mind-spirit awareness, and use flower essences and homeopathic remedies to help them achieve a better holistic sense of self.

Sometimes by looking closely enough, you can identify what the real issues are that hold you and your beloved pet companions back, and come up with creative strategies to combat them.
Quite often, they involve very little investment in money and don’t require external helpers like medication. We are born with the tools we need to navigate life. Sometimes, though, we just need to dig deep enough to find them.

Another few hours and I have managed to work out some perspective issues, especially around the eyes…and perhaps make Bella look more like a real dog than a neon sign!

The weather’s warming up here so I’m not sure how much painting I’ll be getting to today. Bella and Dasher are suffering from a bit of cabin fever so I think we’ll make a long awaited trek to Jockey Hollow this afternoon.

This is my dog Bella – a challenge to paint because of her unusual markings that don’t really coincide with her structural shape. This one…as the others, still in progress.

I find these quiet winter days perfect for this pursuit.