What animals are teaching me …by Sandra Butel
Honey puppy, my teacher, Yorkshire, UK by Sandra Butel
I am Sandra Butel and this is my beautywalk.
beautywalk is my journey of discovering the pure beauty of both internal and external landscapes. As part of this process of learning and growth and adventuring I started spending time in other peoples’ houses with other peoples’ pets. As a member of TrustedHousesitters since April of 2022, I have invested time and energy into caring for animals and spaces all across Canada, into the west coast of the US and throughout the UK, France and Portugal, connecting with clients in my coaching practice all the while.
I am starting the day today with a walk in the rolling hills with Honey puppy (my latest charge) and am settling into the cozy feeling of being the only moving figures inside the hazy surreality of a landscape, silent and heavy with the viscous air filled with the weight of damp. We are on the inside of a snow globe (minus the snow). I am protected and cocooned inside the clear glass of the rounded earth around me; as I alternate between taking the lead and letting the puppy decide the course, the cadence and the stops and starts. There is no separation between where I begin and end and where the land around me begins and ends. The lines of trees, solid and grounded, call me to the rightness of this moment and the safety of being absolutely where I am. The occasional flock of tiny birds synchronize swims through the dense fog off in the distance, as a drop of moisture drips down from the tree branches splayed overhead. Honey baby is intrigued by a stick and picks it up tentatively and when she gets purchase starts to walk ahead. The stick soon drops out from between her growing teeth and she walks away from it, deigning to give it the attention she has given it a moment ago. Is that a sense of “I don’t care” and is it pretend? Or is it just that her mind is now onto the next thing and has completely let go of the last moment?
The more time I spend with animals, especially dogs, the more I see them as true examples of living in the moment. Of smelling when there are smells, listening when there are sounds, and walking forward when there is something ahead to discover. They are such good role models for us human beings to mimic. From my time with dogs I am learning so much about how to be in my body. To stop and listen when the dogs stop and listen, to react with great joy when I see someone I love, to listen to my body when it tells me I need to go out, or wee, or I want to eat.
The incredible love that comes from these furry bodies is such a gift to me. I know, logically, that they love me as they figure out I am the one giving them food and taking them out to walk and wee and poo, but it doesn’t feel like that is all there is to these fleeting and loving relationships. The dogs sense my energy and with my energy in the state it is now, with less stress and more calm and more joy and more openness to what is, they are drawn to me and their energy calms with mine. For me this is healing energy, to have such unconditional love for periods of time and then to know that they will go on to give that unconditional love to someone else is so freeing for the long time “people pleaser” in me. I can love them and receive their love and then I can pack up my bags and move on to the next housesit without any kind of guilt or shame about leaving them to carry on without me.
I have carried the responsibilities in my life; whether of work or family or friends, with such a heaviness, such a sense of “should” and duty and burden, that this new kind of connection is such a lovely gift. I can see my beauty and worth, both in my generosity and love and equally in the time I take for myself, the choices I make to take a bath and leave the pet downstairs, or close the door on them when they are whining and I have a client or a connecting call with a friend. I am learning not to judge and not to hold any kind of ideal in my mind of what is going to happen with the pets. They are going to do what they do and I am going to focus on being okay with whatever happens. At ease with the not knowing, at ease with the not being in control. This is Jedi training for me: to let things happen and to lean into the humility of all I don’t know about dogs or cats or ducks or chickens (or anything else for that matter).
What insight will tomorrow’s beautywalk have to bring? What else can I learn from the world around me? What will my next environment have to offer me in terms of insight and learning?
I am Sandra Butel and this is my beautywalk. What’s yours?
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