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<\/a>me, then she rests it there.\u00a0 Not long.\u00a0 But for a bit.\u00a0 How long she stays in my lap varies, usually not more than a minute, if that.<\/p>\nIn years before I might have shrugged her away, wanted to get on with my reading, not realized the precious moment that was happening.\u00a0 With Tor, our great yellow Irish Wolfhound, a true sweetheart, much like Vega, Rigel\u2019s sister, I began to have a doubled vision. No, not double vision, but doubled.\u00a0 I would see Tor, smiling at me from the carpet, and I would see Tor dead, lying stiff and lifeless.\u00a0 This may seem gruesome, and perhaps it is, but it comes from having experienced the deaths of so many dogs.<\/p>\n
The phrase, how terrible it is to love something that death can touch, had become a present reality for me.\u00a0 This doubled vision, a long and painful lesson taught to me by so many dogs, has changed my life.\u00a0 When Rigel comes to visit in my chair now, I see the moment for what it is.\u00a0 A time that will never come again.\u00a0 A time that means everything, all of it, right in that instance.<\/p>\n
In the way of tea the Japanese tea-master takes unbelievable pains to ensure that the tea ceremony you attend is a once in a lifetime experience, ichigo ichie.\u00a0 The tea-master chooses art, flowers, tea cups, fresh water vessels, waste water vessels, foods and candies all with you in mind.\u00a0 The Japanese tea-ceremony reminds in an elegant way, that every moment has the potential to be a once in a lifetime moment.<\/p>\n
With the giant breed dogs, whose lives are so short, each moment is so clearly once in a lifetime. \u00a0They have taught me to cherish those ordinary moments, a dog crawling in my lap, as a time of unique tenderness.\u00a0 This doubled vision, though I don\u2019t encourage it necessarily, has taught me that it is this moment, this time, right now that is the time we have together.\u00a0 Much better to embrace it than wish for it after death has already come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
8\/11\/2013\u00a0\u00a0 Lughnasa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Honey Moon Rigel, who weighs about 120\/130, likes to come up to my chair while I\u2019m reading, then put first one leg, then another in my lap.\u00a0 Her head, now close to my chest, looks up at me, then she rests it there.\u00a0 Not long.\u00a0 But for a bit.\u00a0 How long she stays … Continue reading Doubled Vision<\/span>