Running on High.... Emotions, that is.

Wow, talk about an emotional day. Yesterday I noticed that my dog's tumour was, seemingly rather suddenly, substantially larger. He's a 9 yr old chocolate lab. He's had this growth for a couple years and his vet had said it was "too close to the heart to remove". So he's been living with this 3" growth dangling from his chest (yes it looks as weird as it sounds). In the past week, I'd guess, it has begun to grow again and now has tripled in size - it's the size of my fist. That can't be good. Also, he's lost his appetite (sure sign something's amiss). So I called our cat's vet today and took him for a second opinion. This other vet feels that he COULD be operated on - remove the tumour and send it for a biopsy to see what's up with it. As if having a massive protruding tumour isn't troubling enough, he also has allergies. So his skin is flaky and dry and itchy, he has very little hair on his face and tummy and the poor dog - he's had such terrible health problems for the past 5 yrs. There's more to the story, but you get the point - the dog is not in optimal health for his age, by any means. For the weekend, I'm going to try and keep him comfortable (he's having trouble lying down because of the size of this growth) and we'll see how things go. Life with pets is wonderful - they share such love with us and it gives us an opportunity to focus on someone else other than ourselves - which I think is pretty important to our own growth. But reminded of their mortality (and ours!), as they often don't outlive their owners, it can be quite challenging to deal with our heightened emotions surrounding suffering and loss.

So it's been a rather emotional day... I just keep reminding myself of the idea that grey clouds and rain storms are just that - above the clouds the sun is always shining and the sky is a beautiful cloudless blue and it's warm and brilliant. I never actually realized that until I took my first flight on a plane when I was about 12. That one realization changed my perspective on life soooooo much. I don't need to create drama around the emotions; they can just be and there is no need to judge them or create attachment to them. They are there; they will pass. Life is great. Life is now. Today I'm feeling really grateful for my dog sharing his life with me. He's a wonderful being. :)

On the raw food side of things, I've been consuming mostly juices for the past 3 days - 4+L on Tuesday, 3L yesterday - more than 2L today (plus 2L of "ultimate smoothie"). It feels really good and I can tell there is some pretty good detoxing going on.

Going to Tai Chi tonight which will really help relax and ground me. And I'll sleep SOOOOOO well afterwards. Yeeehaaaaaaaaaaa.
Love y'all.
~n~