People treat pets with the love they’d like to give other people if they weren’t afraid of getting hurt

Memories of my beloved dog still remain with me, 10 years after his passing. Spike was a beautiful Labrador/beagle mix. We adopted him at an SPCA when he was 1 year old. He was found beaten in a field. My mom remembers his fragile demeanour in the corner of his cage. He was the only dog that kept quiet upon seeing human visitors. The first year as part of our family, he would clench his jaws and shut his eyes at even our gentlest attempts at petting his head. He never bit us. He was a very kind soul.


my-dog-spike


Dogs love us however we are. It doesn’t matter if you complete your master’s degree or you climb the ladder at your job. Whether you are poor, white, black, asian, big house or small house, successful or not, depressed or joyful, they will love you truly. Imagine how different the world would feel if humans loved in this way.


"People treat pets with the love they’d like to give others if they weren’t afraid of getting hurt."

- Visakan Veerasamy


Fear. It drives us. We are afraid of being hurt because being hurt is paralyzing. It might be so painful that our demise could follow. We don’t know. Perhaps that’s why we’re afraid - because what might occur as the fear becomes reality is unknown. Thus, it seems to me that our fear of the unknown is the driving factor of our behaviours. It is impossible to be loving as a dog when you’re consumed with fear. Why do we feel like this in the first place? I think it’s because we, as human beings, are able to look ahead and to plan for a future. We are able to see into a now that hasn’t yet become. By jumping in and out of the here and now, we lose track of the never-ending series of events that now brings. When we jump out of the now, we jump into the future where things have not yet manifested. We sacrifice the ‘now ‘for the ‘there’ not realizing that the future we are thinking about is happening now. Now is all that we will ever experience. When the future becomes, it will still be now.

Only humans think about the future in this way. Yet, we persist in doing so. This is, in my opinion, perfectly encapsulated in the sermon on the mount.


“I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather crops into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single day to his life’s span? And why are you worried about clothing? Notice how the lilies of the field grow; they do not labor nor do they spin thread for cloth, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.

So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Matthew 6:25-36


Human; an intelligent creature capable of incredible creation is often left paralyzed by irrational fears. Such brilliance rendered powerless. What can one do?

In the morning, I like to sprinkle a mixture of seeds on the ramp of my balcony for sometime, in the afternoon, a jay will drop by. Something happens when I watch this bird for a little while. I become calmer. The bird conveys to me its simplistic way of life by simply being. It brings me comfort and allows my existence to rest. Could it be said that there is a one-way communication happening in this moment? Perhaps it becomes two-way when the bird reciprocates the watching between each peck. The jay, like my dog, doesn’t have the capability of spoken language. It cannot clearly communicate its wants. All they have is the way they are. We, as byproduct of our particular society, will often showcase our identity to the world. If I want people to see me the way I want, I say “I’m a writer” or “I’m a blogger”. I paint my portrait the way I hope people imagine me to be and when others view me in the intended way, it flatters my ego - I become proud. Can the same be said of the jay that lands on my balcony? It cannot, because animals differ from humans in this way. My dog never tried to be anything but himself. Animals are what they do. A dog does what a dog is. I think we can learn a thing or two from them.