Responsibility

Responsibility is defined as "the state ... of having a duty to deal with something" and "(responsibility to/toward) a moral obligation to behave correctly toward or in respect of." As humans I believe we have a responsibility to fully deal with and heal our individual trauma and/or complete the "life lesson" that is solely ours as a human in our present lifetime. 

When we are born, as a baby we have no defenses. We are filled with innocence. We are open and connected to Tao, God or whatever we as an individual believes is THE Higher Power. Then in our human body we experience some kind of "rude awakening" from BEing connected to this Higher Power. In addition, as we are born into this world, we bring with us a lesson to learn while living this life. Some of us tackle that lesson, others are asleep to doing so. 

Rose Simpson's sculpture done while studying in Japan
and now on exhibit at the Wheelwright Museum, Santa Fe, N.M.
Photo taken by Michael Stoyka . . . thank you!

For me practicing BEing awake has been augmented by the dogs that have come to live with me. For Sun, the last of my four Siberian Huskies, her Work for her lifetime was merging the domesticated and the wild. I cut her life short, and thus her Work, when I had her euthanized prematurely. Her spirit hovered and did not leave her favorite spot at MuRefuge for over a year. Sun was the last dog I had euthanized.

Sun is pictured above standing in the snow wearing
in her sled dog harness that matched her eyes. She loved to
pull me on my skis in the Eastern Sierra snow.

After Star (who came to live with us when we knew we were getting a Siberian Husky puppy, Sun, who would need a grounding presence) experienced a natural death, at which time she morphed into a huge male wolf, I missed having a dog as the time passed. Months later as MuRefuge seemed so empty without a dog, I became obsessed with finding another dog! I spent hours on the internet searching for a young dog about the age Star was when she came to live with us. Then Dwight suggested perhaps searching for a puppy instead of looking for a 1 1/2 to 2 year old dog. Within moments of changing course so to speak, up came a litter of puppies for adoption in Lake County. We drove to see the puppies. Dwight picked up one of the puppies and as soon as I took her into my arms she nuzzled my neck: "Sun"! This puppy possessed Sun's soul. When this puppy was eight weeks old, we brought her home, Rose picking up where Sun left off so to speak. From the day she returned to her familiar home, she lived on the fast track as she seemed to deeply know that this life would be short. And indeed it was short: less than four years in spite of the left leg amputation for "bone cancer" which was done to hopefully extend her life.  For six months Rose ran with her usual lightening, agile speed of a sight hound as though she still had all four legs.

Pictures above and below of
Rose running along Picnic Grounds Road which is located
along the Western side of Mono Lake, California.

Once Rose realized she was without one hind left leg, she fell into a deep, deep place of grieving her loss. Less than eight months after her leg was amputated she succumbing to another cancerous growth in her remaining hind leg and she left her body. She was quite pleased with herself that she was able to complete the Work of merging the wild and the domesticated which Sun was unable to do.


Dwight was none too sure about bringing another dog into our lives since he was still reeling from the death of Rose only a few months prior. Me, I just wanted a healthy FOUR legged dog!

Shasta after her bath during her first full day with us.
As you can see she has a "shell shocked" look about her.

It comes as no surprise to me that our dog, Shasta, who came to live with us
when she was six months old, brought with her a trauma issue to deal with. Her first six months fraught with safety and survival issues. Yet to me there seemed to be more. I was fortunate to hear about Jen Ortman, a stellar animal communicator, who immediately upon seeing Shasta's picture, "saw" her soul was that of little gypsy girl two life times ago when she was used in satanic ritual. Luckily the Marin Humane Society adopter, who had previously placed her in an inappropriate home, chose me to adopt her even though there were almost a hundred people on "the wait list" to adopt her. "From the get go" Shasta was a handful with her guarding behavior she had developed in her previous brief home. Perhaps this behavior was a response to her little gypsy girl's life where she had so few possessions and little or no "control" of her life. It quickly became evident she did not realize she was a dog. With consistency in her now forever home and guidance from several animal communicators, Shasta's guarding behavior markedly decreased and she showed signs of dog behaviors like grooming and "marking." 

 


When we hit a rough spot in the road, this discomfort offers us a path to accepting responsibility to bring forth the trauma and all the emotions held in our bodies. Allowing the emotions to come up and discharging these emotions lays a new foundation to becoming a fully developed sentient BEing. Most abdicate their responsibility by taking what looks like the easy path. However, it is my belief that it takes tremendous energy to keep the memory of our initial trauma at bay thus affording imbalance in our physical form. This imbalance leads to illness and often a arduous death.

"Remember that you are always your own person.... 

never give up responsibility for you own life. 

No one lives your life for you."

Deng Ming-Dao

As we each accept responsibility to complete our life lesson, may we