There are times when normal life and its
habits have to change. When things external must be taken care of. When people
need things and they must be done. I have been in Manhattan, in Brooklyn
Heights, at a chic hotel where everything is recycled, reused and reclaimed; on streets
named after fruits; on highways and Interstates, in rain and shine; on a sheep
farm at lambing time; in supermarkets, pharmacies, bars, restaurants and banks;
and at nursing homes and hospitals and ICU’s…
So how can a dog become inspiration?
Border collies are born and bred for intense activity. They watch sheep and
want to herd them. A defective lamb rejected by its mother would normally die
in the field (and even some perfectly OK lambs are sometimes found dead after a
few days). But there was one runt in a set of twins who learned the trick of
coming in from behind every time his brother was suckling so as to avoid
rejection by its mother. He showed intelligence and a will to live, and so far,
he has survived. Another skinny lamb could hardly stand after being born, and
was thought to be unable to last the first night. But when he was given a milk
replacement bottle, he latched onto it for dear life and showed an incredible
will to live. A few days later, he was adopted by a family who wanted a pet.
The day when the family was to come,
Dellie “watched” his little lamb all morning and part of the afternoon. He lay
on the ground and wouldn’t take his eyes off his lambie. He sat at the cardboard
box and occasionally peeked over the top to make sure his lamb was there. The
dog’s intensity was amazing. It’s called one-pointed concentration, total
focus, intensity squared. A cat may watch a mousehole for a time, but then wanders
off. Not Dellie. He lived and panted for that lamb, and that lamb only, for
five hours non-stop.
If
we humans could show that level of intensity in our applying our Awareness to
our lives, we would surely overcome the vagaries of the mind, become contented,
find joy and perhaps even enlightenment. We hear of remaining in Awareness,
dis-identifying with the thinking mind, cultivating the Observer, or being in
Presence, and yet the “how” to do this is lacking, the “energy” to do this cannot
be found, the “dogged intensity of a dog” is not there for us. And so we chop
and change and spread our attention out over so many different things that
there is very little left for our Self-Awareness.
Long live Dellie and
his intensity. We can learn from him.
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