Lessons in Attachment
Goodbye, My Sweet Lita
My dog, Lita, left this world on Thursday after six weeks (that I knew of) battling cancer. For the last three weeks I was pretty constantly worried about her but I started to worry that she was not letting herself die because of her loyalty to me. So each day I would tell her, “Thank you. You can go when you are ready. You don’t have to stay for me. Thank you.” It was heartbreaking but also so very sweet to recognize our bond while also releasing her from it.
It was such a powerful lesson in gratitude and nonattachment. I think a lot about gratitude being a reminder of things that are important to me, things that I want more of in my life. But this gift of knowing that my beloved pet was dying was a reminder that all I had was that moment. I never knew if I would have another.
Telling her thank you every day was not a wish for more but an acknowledgment of what was.
I was attached to her. I still am. I grieve her absence in my day to day life and I honor the time we had. And I am grateful for the reminder of the power of presence and for the connections we have when we share presence with those we love. Mindfulness is a reminder to be here now, not in the past or the future but here in the present.
I was so very grateful for the weight of her head resting on my leg when we took our last nap together on Thursday. And right here and now I am still grateful for it and for so many other memories. This day. This moment. I am grateful for so many things. Like my niece who just visited me and brought me a drawing of Lita.
And in this very moment I am grateful to share all of this with you and for the sound of two different types of birds singing outside my door.
It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.
~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
What will you do today to live this day to the fullest?
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