Hope and Love

You can be loving all the time.  This is your choice.  You may not have a reason to love, but you can love because to love makes you so happy.  Love in action only produces happiness.  Love will give you inner peace.  It will change your perception of everything.  Suffering?  It makes you feel safe because you know it so well.  But there is really no reason to suffer.  The only reason you suffer is because you choose to suffer.  If you look at your life you will find many excuses to suffer, but a good reason to suffer you will not find."  Toltecs, baby, Toltecs.  These guys had some serious shit going  on.

My little walk through the Toltec book is coming to an end.  The author is concluding with a couple of prayers and this is his intro to the prayer itself: "Please take a moment to close your eyes, open your heart, and feel all the  love that comes from your heart.  I want you to join me in your mind and in your heart, to feel a very strong connection of love."

Our neighbor has a rescue dog that was plucked from the mean streets of Mexico.  This dog is the happiest dog in the history of the universe.  The name she was given in the rescue kennel was Hope and a more appropriate name I cannot imagine.  Her tail is in constant motion and she is overjoyed - thrilled! - to see anyone and everyone.  It looks like she is meeting everyone for the first time or that the person approaching is her best friend in the world, someone she hasn't seen in forever.

I fancy myself a dog person.  I usually lower myself to the dog's level - often plopping my ass right down on the pavement - and I whisper sweet nothings into their ears.  Dogs know love and they really respond to this.  I'm acquainted with a number of these animals who react enthusiastically as soon as they pick up my scent.  But Hope?  This dog thinks I'm god.  I also give her a mini carrot which she receives as if it were choice filet mignon so this might have something to do with her affection but - seriously - she loses her shit when she sees me.  It's one of the highlights of my day to see this dog.  It's a perfect manifestation of love in my eyes.