Mindfulness as medicine
Written by Huib, published Wednesday January 10th, 2018
Today could be the last day together with my own faithful travel companion of the last seven years. Tomorrow afternoon the vet will come, unless I cancel the appointment. Mats seems to be losing her battle with the cancer that is spreading like wildfire in her body. As her owner, it is up to me to decide if and when to end her life and thus prevent her from spending her last days in agony. What a tough choice and what a meaningful time, together with her and many dear friends who are fond of both her and me.
I would add pets to that quote. Pets. Isn’t it strange that we label a group of domesticated animals after the verb ‘petting’? So many people can relate easier to them than to other people and I got tens of messages in response to the last blog article, from people telling me how much their current or deceased pets meant for them. I’m writing this update because many people symphatise and ask me in (too many) messages, mails or apps how she is doing.
Mindfullness in the age of tips and opinions
Someday the start of the 21st century will become known as ‘the age of tips’. Yet they are not very helpful to me or her. If she has only few days to live, any advice to try e.g. apricot kernels for a month, will be irrelevant. Actually Mats already got them, yet at a more sensible dosage than the Dutchman who recently died, after he ate a whole bag of them. The thing is: she does not have a month and neither do I.
“Mindfulness is the best medicine now”, my vet said to me last week. By the way: if I ever become seriously ill, the first thing I will do is to get a species-changing operation. During the last weeks I’ve had several encounters with vets and the difference between how they think, cooperate and interact with their medical counterparts of striking. If you want proper care, forget about gender, but make sure you become a pet. I’ll write something about this topic soonish.
I recently have not posted much publicly on Social Media, because tips and opinions basically make me less mindful, because they distract. I can trust the knowledge and experience of the three different vets, I have knowledge of different fields of healing (including energetic healing) myself and also know people who are reliable and able. And I need to my own intuition to navigate and chose what’s best for both her and me. Too much distraction or stress does not really help to hear what that intuition is saying, with a literal deadline on the horizon.
Miracle or the Doberman’s Doom?
Monday we postponed the decision to end her life, even though she is now seriously ill, because we both felt some miracle was still possible and she was not suffering too much to give that some more time.
Yesterday a whole series of coincidences started to happen. When these kinds of coincidences occur like this, I start to pay attention. Which has literally saved my own life a couple of times.
Now, I simply don’t know what will happen and how this doggy tale will end. One way or the other, there will be light at the end of this tunnel.
The famous Dutch children books author Annie M.G. Schmidt once said: “every story has a good ending, as long as you stop soon enough”. What matters to me now, is that I go through this process as careful and mindful as I possibly can. And during the last weeks, she had the best days and company of her life. She is much loved by both people and dogs. Cats however… (well, let’s leave that out of this article)
I will keep you posted in a next article, but will not react on Facebook (even though I see the reactions). Sympathy is much appreciated, your own experiences with your endeared pets are very welcome and tips / opinions on what I should do / forced positive thinking are neither needed nor appreciated.
If you want to read more about Mats and the important role she has played in my life and during my adventures in Lyme Land, you can do so in ‘Shifting the Lyme Paradigm‘. As a matter of fact, you could find out why she may be called the main character of it. I just learned from a reader of this article that In Swedish the meaning of the name Mats is ‘gift from God‘.
drs. Huib Kraaijeveld
In: Blog Mats a Dog
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