Just the other day I was brooded with work thoughts. Some deliverables were to be brought in order, some stakeholders were to be managed, some planning was to be sorted and a couple of alignments to be planned. While I was lost in my work thoughts, Althea was busy digging some old treasures from her toy drawer. With my slightest observation, I realized she was stuck in a loop of sniffing a toy and moving to the next one till she approached the end of the collection. While she was doing all that she was also peeking at what I was up to. This went on for a while, we both were occupied.
The work thoughts were triggering anxieties for sure however every time I looked at Thea it triggered some sense of bliss. Sitting there I realized how I was choosing to spend time with anxieties rather than picking a toy and playing with Althea but I felt helpless, I had to sort a few things and I was out of options. Was I? well let’s figure that out through this piece. This chain of thoughts went on for some time. My mind was posing a conflict and my helplessness picked work.
About 30 minutes into this spiral, Althea finally approached me with a toy. She had a ball in her mouth, her tail wagging with excitement, and with a sweet little growl, she nudged me. As if in her language she was asking me to move on to better things in life and to play fetch with her.
As I approached her to get the ball she ran a little far, stood at a distance, and gave me a sweet Lil stare with her innocent puppy eyes.
I picked myself up and ran behind her to get the ball which led to her moving to the other side of the room.
Finally, the chase was On!
I kept on chasing and in no time she started running around the room as zoomies triggered in.
Well, zoomies were for her but I got into the same loop too, laughing, calling out for her trying to hold her I almost ran across the house too with Althea.
Damn, it was ecstatic.
In no time I was losing myself in all the laughter. I took advantage of Thea’s tiredness and snatched the ball from her and dived into my bed to grasp the ball tightly. Well, there she was scratching my back and my head with her paw to get the ball.
“No, I’m not giving you the ball Thea” stop with your scratches already, I said in my animated voice which I usually use while talking with Althea. I was trying really hard to hold my laughter and I lay down on my stomach I held the ball in my hand and kept it close to my chest.
Suddenly after a minute, I realized how there was pin drop silence in the room. I could hardly see anything as I was lying down hiding things from Thea. But this silence was unusual, had Thea given up so early? Had she left the room? had she picked another toy to play with now?
Without focusing much on these presumptuous thoughts I turned around to check on her, and there she was sitting right beside me. Her face in the closest proximity I could see how badly she was waiting for me to stop this annoyance game. Her eyes spoke her feelings in the volume of the ocean and she just sat there, in utter silence for me to accept her request. Was this a silent protest? No, I said to myself, this was a gesture where she chose to be patient. She knew I wouldn’t pester her and her kind gesture was to give me time to change my decision. Her face lit me up with the widest smile. I got up and literally hugged her as tight as I could. Well, the story could have been more beautiful if she did the same but she being Thea couldn’t resist her protest for the ball, with her hasty moves she reminded me that I was being an ass and that I should return her ball.
There you go, I ebulliently showed her the ball and threw it up in the air. What happened next was crazier, the way she jumped to catch the ball and the perfect catch with her body literally in the air was marvelous. “Whoooaaaa, that’s my girl” I yelled out of excitement and she looked at me and started dancing around the bed haha, what a beautiful sight.
She was celebrating her achievement but more than that she was celebrating the appreciation that she got from me, she was celebrating our time together and at that moment she made me realize how beautifully she encapsulated my mind to shower it with pure bliss and distract me with superfluous anxieties. Maybe she was also celebrating to have done that to me and to have sparked so much laughter and the widest smile. Her celebration was unalloyed and my happiness around her was unalloyed!
Effortlessly and that easily she uplifted me, enlightened me on how I was adhering to my stress by paying attention to it, and without even speaking any words to me she sparked calmness.
Was I stressed after this? Was I out of work stress? No that’s not the case, work thoughts persisted but now its existence had a different significance. I knew how to handle it without getting stressed.
Precisely what did Thea say to me for that to happen? Honestly, the answer is “She said Nothing, but she definitely did something”
How is that possible? You’d ask, well which is absolutely a right question
I’ll tell you what, The moment when I was with Althea, I had no other thoughts and my heart was in a state which was open just to embrace that time with her.
While I was going through this feeling, my mind got some time to accept and embrace this state of openness too. Consciously it didn’t act, but what happened in the background is I got some strength to deal with situations better. Rather than feeling overwhelmed, my joyous mind now broke it down into a doable piece of work. My anxieties got translated into a parable which drove me to calmness. All that in just 15 mins with Althea, without any intentional effort, without any agenda to fix my problems, Althea triumphed over my heart again with her purity.
You know this feeling of loving someone so deeply, seeing the best in them, and accepting their love with such receptiveness is very rare to find! I tried finding that with humans, especially my loved ones, but my expectations and shrewd judgments kind of messed it up. Would I ever be able to achieve this state with any human ever? This is the question I often ask myself but today I have that with Althea and I have gratitude to shower to have been blessed with Althea and this feeling.
Well, you’d be wondering where am I heading with all this. It’s simple, I’m heading towards the joy of acceptance. A little act of pure acceptance and pure bliss can turn around things in incredulous ways. With Althea, I learn these small acts of love and I try to implement them in my life, how far I’d go with this, how unrealistic is this? How ambitious Id turn as a ramification of this ?is the question I ask myself, but one thing that I’m sure of is this kind of love will go long way.
It will heal, it will empower growth, it will bring the best in this world, it will hurt at times but it will evolve stronger out of this hurt and eventually it will create its foundation strong enough to literally leave a mark.
Love knows no bounds of sharing it with anyone and the best part of all this, it motivates me to be on the giver’s end and not on the receiver’s end.
