Friday, February 22, 2008

dogs and unconditional love


If you want to learn what passion really means, hang out with a dog. They get it. It's what drives their little beings. They express it and seek it all day long. Whether its eating, sleeping or fetching, they do it with gusto. Throw them a stick and watch their excited reaction as they bound in leaps to retrieve it. Give them a steak bone and observe how they lose themselves in chomping. Give them a bath...........and they will passionately try to shake you and the water off! Watch them protect their property and family and you'll see a growling reaction and a whole heap of barking.

Passion is the sizzling heat behind all other emotions. It's the spice which takes the taste of life to a broader, deeper place. We humans try to suppress this for the most part because too much of it is considered inappropriate. Unless you are up on a stage acting in a Tennesse Williams play, or singing the blues........unless you're in front of a group of yawning executives trying to motivate them.........unless you're in the middle of creating a masterpiece on canvas........ we tend to keep most of our unbridled passion bridled. Societal rules keep tight parameters on us.

Stand up on a bench in the middle of a park and announce to the world that you LOVE life, freedom and faeries and well........................someone's gonna call the looney truck on you. Express your deeply felt opinion on politics or religion in the wrong crowd and watch out how quickly the room clears out. Tell some unsuspecting stranger in need how much you LOVE them and see how quickly they run away with fright.

Is there some fine line between passion and crazy? I guess it depends on what other emotion passion is feeding. It also depends on the setting, the timing.......the situation. A stirring charismatic speech that promotes goodness in action as opposed to one with a similar depth of feeling that espouses violence..........well, it's pretty obvious where the line is drawn here. What's important to note, I think is that the underlying feeling behind deep love and wretched hate is the same. Passion.

Life would cease to be as fulfilling as it has the capacity to be if we didn't have outlets for feeling the wonderfully motivating, life affirming side of this emotion. It's when passion is tied to empathy that it's the most effective. If there wasn't some place to pour it out......to really FEEL beyond the normal and acceptable levels. Though many life guru types have overused the word, and have made a fortune asking the question "what is YOUR passion?"...... to a point where it's nauseating and trite sounding, it is a question I believe we should be asking ourselves so we can pursue avenues which offer us this chance to experience it.


Passion opens up our pores and makes the air feel light around us.

Passion can make our toes curl, our brains alert, our senses alive.

Passion feeds our creative juices.

Passion allows us to learn to love like we never been hurt.

Knowing what makes us feel passion helps us more than any other feeling to figure out why we were put on this planet. If we can tap into this..........to know what our passions are, we can fulfill our own reason for being here. We can GO FOR IT.

I watch my dog Lily sometimes when she doesn't know I'm watching.........her capacity to love her family, to seek out her need to be loved knows no bounds. Whatever she is doing, she is doing it with the passion she inherently has within her and she 's not embarrassed one iota in letting someone know. Yes, maybe we need to consider dogs as our role models when it comes to learning how to express and to accept a deeper level of passion. Wouldn't this world be a better place if we did so?



The prompt this week for sunday scribblings is passion............ may it's force be with you.

29 comments:

Shaz said...

That is so so true and what a shame we cant yell from the roof tops when were happy with out people thinking we are mad. lol

awareness said...

BARKING mad!

Kamsin said...

Great thoughts! It does seem sad that we seem to put a straight jacket on our passion!

Karen said...

We do pull really hard on the reins when we feel our passions rise because for some reason it isn't acceptable to be demonstrative in public. Still there is sometimes a fine line between passion and madness. Both can be all consuming.

Great post Dana.

Liza on Maui said...

My daughter is begging for a dog. I am sure she agrees on every word here. Maybe this post will help her convince us :)
Thanks for the passionate post :)

Lucy said...

"when passion is tied to empathy that it's the most effective."
I love and whole heartily agree with that line and your love of dogs and your whole PASSionate philosophy! Excellent job communicating passion to us! :))

Open Grove Claudia said...

I received an email this morning that said: passion = success = money = passion = success = money. So it's funny that you are here writing about passion and dogs. I think I learned a lot about passion from Rosie.

(Shaking my head)

I also heard and interview with Dr. DeMartini. He said "what we loose focus on we are not passionate about".

I guess that's my word for the day. Thanks! :)

Sherry said...

Oh yes,sad but true..we do bottle up passion -- we feel it can only be displayed at certain times, in certain ways. Loved this piece.

Granny Smith said...

What a wonderful take on the prompt!
I had thought of writing an essay on the passion of a rioting group such as that which invaded the US embassy in Serbia. I settled for the (for me) much easier business of a sonnet (already posted in Sunday Scribblings), but you've outdone anything I could have written.

Aren't dogs wonderful?!

Menopauseprincess said...

Hey Awareness,

You are appropriately named! Yes, you've hit the nail on the head in your doggie discussion.

My little fur girl loves to be as close as possible to us at all times and is also completely focused on the task in front of her, whether it's licking the carpet or getting her back scratched.

It would be nice to release the shackles of propriety and just be.

Devil Mood said...

I absolutely loved your post! You really made me wonder - what is my passion? Because generally I'd say, I'm a really passionate person, exclamation marks all round! But then...about what exactly? hmmmm

I'm passionate about dogs for one. I so miss having one, my dog passed away this summer.

UL said...

oh you said it so well...i couldnt agree more..lovely post.

awareness said...

Kamsin...good to see you again. I think perhaps we need to take the straight jacket off and see what happens.

Gypsy....We most definately need to seek outlets for expressing it/channeling it don't we? I think writing is a wonderful vessel for this as we all know in the blogging world.
maybe suppressed passion leads to madness?

liza....how much is that doggie in the window? We are hoping to get another dog this spring. It's been two years since our Choc. Lab Lucy died ...... exactly two years this week. Labs are the way to go....they are smart, loyal, not so yappy, and keep an eye on their family.

Lucy....thank you. When I wrote that line I was thinking of how effective it would be if we could all harness passion and empathy....how it would alter our world if we could all just see through the eyes of another.

Claudia....i only seem to get adds for penis enlarging creams etc.....I guess that's another sort of passion?
It's unfortunate how the word has been used and overused in advertising...and marketing by the Tony Robbin's of the world and how they have tied it in with making money.

Sherry....welcome. I wonder where we learn this? I guess it happens when we are toddlers.....told to suppress our extreme emotions and learn how to be socially accepted. Passion expressed also taps into our vulnerability too I'm thinking.....it makes us step beyond the borders of control to some extent. people like others to appear to be in control of their emotions and not splaying them all over the place.
too bad.......

maybe we should change this stupid unwritten rule......

Betty Carlson said...

It's interesting how many of the posts on this subject have not dealt with romantic passion.

I love the doggy take.

Marja said...

Oh Dana lovely post. I love the word passion. i loved being young because than I didn't feel to put a lid on dancing loving anything without passion. Nowadays, they do find me stange if I put a bit too much energy in things. That's why I love the Italiens They live passion They are allowed to show what they feel. NZ is nice as long as you keep a big distance between people. Sight

awareness said...

granny...I will check out your sonnet. good on you...i dont think i could write one.

dogs are wonderful. i can live without the yappy ones though. i think i like Labs best because they are so laid back....at least the ones who have been a part of my family have been.

m.princess....thank you. our shackles of propriety are at least rattled when we hit a certain menopausy age dont you think? :)

devil mood....I dont believe we are as focused as we can be if we don't know what stirs us the most. When i was writing this, i had the thought that perhaps figuring this out is the key to knowing why we were put on this planet.... we all have loves, yearnings and desires....which in turn identify our gifts and interests. if we know what they are, we can offer this world our very best. maybe passion is another word for "calling"

ul....thankyou... i'm glad you enjoyed my piece. enjoy your day with GUSTO!

awareness said...

hi betty......personally, i decided not to go that route because it seemed expected. also, i have written on it through poems etc recently.....AND my dog was lying by my feet while i wrote it! :)

Marja....yeah, i get funny looks as well if i seem to overdo it. I blame Queen Victoria for our repressing gene.
ps. I've always harboured a desire to be Italian!

anthonynorth said...

Very well said. And I mean that passionately.

gautami tripathy said...

Very well said. Nothing can beat that!

paisley said...

i loved this post,, ti was such a broad stroke... why is it then that i m left with the feeling that word "passion" carries about as much weight as "love" anymore......

GreenishLady said...

Driving to work one morning this week, I noticed a woman up ahead skipping along the pavement. Skipping like a 6-year-old would. I looked for the child she was with. There wasn't one. That woman is letting her passion for life be expressed. It made me smile. It made me happy. Sometimes we don't have to get up and shout from the rooftops. We can just speak. Say what we love, say what excites us.

I loved this post - and totally agree on the doggy aspect. Like Devil Mood, I lost my dog last year, and the absence of that passionate presence in my house is a huge loss. Up to her very last day, when she saw her lead, my dog would respond with the passion of a puppy to the idea of a walk.

Lilibeth said...

Well written. I enjoyed reading your post. It reminded me that I did something pretty much like the bench-yelling today. I was all alone in the gym, on the treadmill, listening to Beethoven's 6th Symphony on high and I was singing along with it.(I know it doesn't have words. I was singing along anyway, punctuating the air with my fists.) Good thing nobody saw me, but It sure helped me finish my minutes. Ha.

myrtle beached whale said...

We not only share music interests, we share love of dogs. Thanks for stopping back by my blog for another look.

a mouthy irish woman? ridiculous! said...

your post was "right on"! and coincidentally? the great passion in my life right now? is a wiener dog name fergus. :)

lisrobbe said...

Loved this post! I'm a dog lover and owner too. Call me crazy, but I am also a believer in pursuing one's passions. I personally think it is a waste of one's life not to. I worry more about what I think of me than what other's think of me.

Goodnight, Mom said...

What a great essay on passion. Bring it on! I'm shouting now in my den!!

awareness said...

Tony and Gautami....and may I respond with equal passion.......thank you....

Paisley.... perhaps because passion is the underpinning of all emotions? I hate that it's so overused because it has a taint to it......kind of "Chopra-lite" or something. But, when I try to peel off the new agey layers to it, passion stands strong and PUSHES our feelings to a deeper level. It's what gives us that sense of electricity pulsing through us when we are experiencing something at a gut level.

Greenishlady....i would never have understood the intensity of the loss of a dog until we had to put ours down a couple of years back. Like your experience, my dog too showed her passionate disposition right until the end.

I love your example......and wonder how I would initially respond to seeing a woman skipping down the street. I don't know if I have the guts to do that. Good on her!

lilibeth.......and what was MORE helpful for your well being?? I'm putting my money on SINGING to Beethoven! Right on. And, who cares what others think about it.

Rick....I look forward to reading that post you mentioned to me....music and dogs.....and I think beachcombing? Given your blog name, I assume you're a beach person too...

Heather....GREAT name for a weiner doggie! Fergus....love it. I had one when I was young...named of course Max. :)

lisrobbe...i couldn't agree more. i see so many who have compromised too much.....i don't want to get to the end of my life and feel any regrets..... I want to squeeze the life out of it. :)

G.Mom.....I can hear you! You have a LOVELY voice!

Tumblewords: said...

A truly lovely post!

Amarettogirl said...

Dog is my co-pilot! and I loved your sunday scribblings post!!! One of my faves...from one dog repsecting person to another - thank you - I have been saddened lately because I am going away on a trip and I can't find someone to housesit and cares for my two brilliant but four-legged babies. Anyways I needed to read that -thanks!!-amarettogirl
http://amarettogirl.squarespace.com/the-written-word/