It Takes a Village

A nice thing happened to me today. I took my Chihuahua and my foster Chihuahua to the healing services at Harmony Grove Spiritualist Association. When people saw how well we all had bonded, they were quite touched. Taco is a good dog. He fits in with the family and is easy to care for. I don't, however, have the money to adopt another dog. An acquaintance came to me during the break and gave me two hundred dollars--one seventy five for the adoption fee and twenty five for dog food. Another lady handed me a twenty dollar bill. Taco is now mine to keep forever. It takes a village.

Love Came Down by Brian Johnson

http://youtu.be/OEi1wzXXCWQnson

Vision

 

Today I was talking to a lady with a friend who has a blind dog. She says the friend allows the dog to snap at people and she thinks the friend should keep the dog away from people before someone gets hurt. While I talked to her, I was of the mind that people should be afraid of the dog. But later, I was meditating with my dogs and got a different perspective.

Suddenly, I could see the world through the “eyes” of that dog. The world was dark and blurry and the dog was shivering. It was scared to death when it heard unfamiliar voices. I saw the necessity for the dog to feel safe. I envisioned a pink flannel (the color for kindness) in a kennel with a nice knuckle bone. The dog needs the sides of the kennel to be able to navigate where it is. It needs the knuckle bone so it can enjoy life and not have to worry about its blindness. The world is different when you see it through the eyes of a dog.

Praying for Puppy Doe

  

I was sickened to read that this puppy sustained more than seventeen injuries after being given away on Craigslist last September. Her tongue was split, her eye was stabbed, and she was half the weight she should have been. After giving my foster dog away to someone over the weekend, this story is particularly disturbing. My foster dog was given to a kind-hearted man. She got the best home possible but I still feel the weight of the responsibility I had in choosing which home she went to.

When Russell was about to take her home, Dizza looked confused. She looked at me and seemed to say, "I love you so why am I going with him? What is happening to me?" Fostering is a tough job but someone has to do it.

Puppy Doe's story has destroyed me, left me totally heartbroken. May the sick bastard who did this have the same thing done to him in hell. I wish the worst for him, the absolute worst. I've adopted damaged  pit bulls, but none have been treated this badly. Euthanasia was unfortunately the only option because even if she did survive her multiple injuries, behaviorally she would never be right. She'd probably turn vicious around the age of four years. May you rest in peace, precious soul. No one can ever hurt you again.

My Latest Success Story

For more than 12 years, I volunteered at the San Diego County Department of Animal Services in Carlsbad and various other shelters and rescues throughout the county. My work became known as "Melinda's Magic" because when I spent one to three hours a day for two or three consecutive days with a particular dog, it would get adopted after languishing there for weeks or months. I devised my own healing strategy that seemed to work. Three years ago, I began attending services at Harmony Grove Spiritualist Association. The mediums there who didn't know me and didn't know each other continually pointed out the fact that I was "gifted," a "healer" or that I had a lot of electricity when they touched my aura.

Yesterday, I had one of my most amazing stories yet. I'd been fostering a little wire-haired fox terrier. She growled at other people and dogs but not me. She did a lot of nervous chewing particularly if she was kept in a kennel too long.

I did a healing on her right away. I spread a blanket on the floor, burned some sage, lit a candle, and put on Native American flute music. A few minutes later, she was curled up on the floor in a ball. After that, she got along fine with my dogs. I also prayed on my knees that she would find an owner who would love her unconditionally.

Two days later, I received an e-mail from the rescue saying that someone was interested in the dog. He came from LA to see her yesterday and I was impressed by his kindness and the love in his heart. He held her face in his hands and called her his girl. I knew he was the one. I could only hope that he would see it too.

After interacting with her for an hour or so, he wanted me to ride with him and the dog to go out for lunch. He wanted me along so she would feel safer. He was very considerate of her and I was impressed. But I have to say that as a victim of sexual assault, it was difficult for me to trust anybody. I realized then how much we expect of these dogs. Dizza had to go home with a complete stranger and I only had to ride a short way with him. So for her sake, and the fact that the guy is gay, I got in the car and had a very nice lunch. Dizza, who came from Mexico, who was adopted out and returned to the rescue for trying to chew her way out of a kennel, rode home in the back of a Mercedes and will be hiking in the Hollywood Hills.

God bless Russell and God bless Dizza. I will keep them in my prayers.

Living in Harmony

About twenty four hours before these photos were taken, the foster terrier was intimidated by the big dog. She would growl at him and there was even an episode of submissive wetting on my couch...yuck!

After they each received an energy healing, they are in harmony. They are going in the same direction and are comfortable enough to veg out together.

The terrier had been returned to the rescue because it tried to chew its way out of a kennel and was "too much trouble." She is doing much better in my care.

Touched by Dr. Phil

I have admired Dr. Phil McGraw for a long time, in fact, we share a little history. Six years ago, my story, Adopting Katie, appeared on the back page of Good Housekeeping  (January 2007). That month, Dr. Phil was on the cover. My story was about how I rescued an old dog from the shelter (Adopting Katie). My latest story is about how Dr. Phil inadvertently rescued me.

For fourteen years, I lived in hell with a man I didn’t love. We had a marriage license and the ceremony took place on June 5, 1999, but this man was never a husband to me. Two weeks before the wedding ceremony took place, he showed up with a truck and began moving his things in. He shoved my things aside and put his wherever he wanted. On more than one occasion, I realized he considered my home a free motel.

After we were married, he lived in my home for several months without offering a dime to pay his way. When I finally asked him why, he said that he owed more than $60,000 on his credit card.

I was dizzy.

He still didn’t offer anything and I soon grew weary. I told him to get out and a few months later, I visited a mutual friend at her house. She said, “You know, Craig has been living in the old trailer in our backyard for months and he hasn’t offered us a dime. Can you believeit?”

I said, “Yes, that’s why he’s here. He didn’t offer me a dime either. You have to throw him out.”

“But Joe found him living in his truck!”

 “That’s too bad. He needs to take care of himself,” I said, and left the matter at that.

A few weeks later, Craig was back. He’d seen the writing on the wall. Our friends had sold the truck out from under him and so he was now willing to pay a few dollars toward his expenses.

He promised that if I gave him four years, the money trouble would be gone. So I gave him that time and throughout the following years, he met one financial disaster after another. There were too many to name here so I’ll just hit the highlights.

Before I met him, he bought a timeshare so he’d “have someplace to go.” It was a financial strain to pay for it and I often told him to sign it over to the company that sold it to him to get out from under it. He refused. After a few years, we couldn’t even use it anymore because he was behind on his maintenance fee but still had to pay the monthly payments. He tried to sell it but to no avail and refused to let it go into foreclosure. He was putting good money after bad. Eventually, He lost the whole thing and all of the thousands of dollars he put into it.

 I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. I was in the operating room at Palomar Medical Center having a lumpectomy performed when Craig took my car without my permission and went out to pay some bills and have lunch. After the surgery, I asked him where he’d been. When I heard he’d gone out to lunch, I said, “Couldn’t you have eaten in the cafeteria?”

He made a face. “I don’t like cafeteria food.”

He had to have a $600 a month truck and an expensive cell phone to do his job at The Auto Trader. He only made $15 per hour. Every year, The Auto Trader would promise to supply a truck but the management never did. One day, I rode to the corporate office with him. I stunned to see a whole fleet of trucks in the back lot not being used. He made excuses and kept going the way he had been. When he got laid off in 2008, he was broke, having blown through his retirement account years earlier.

He filled out the unemployment forms wrong and so five months out of the next two years, he had no income at all. No one would hire him and eventually his truck was repossessed. At 62, he was forced to take early Social Security payments and so got only $1,100 per month instead of $1,700.

If I complained about any of this, he yelled at me. He somehow turned it around so that it was all my fault. In 20011, we were almost homeless. I had four dogs that I refused to abandoned no matter what. He laid in his room and refused to take a bath. If I tried to talk to him, he’d slam the door in my face or yell at me to get out. The dumbest thing he’s ever done—and trust me there were many—was to put my Lane cedar chest on the curb instead of on the porch like I asked him to.

I really hadn’t wanted to get rid of it, but I had no room for it. My mother had paid a lot of money for it as a graduation gift from highs school. It had sentimental value and even though the outside was scratched, was no doubt worth hundred dollars. I decided that if I gave it to Am Vets, it would go to a good cause. My father had been a Marine and my son-in-law was in the Navy.

 I came home one day to find a note on the door. The Am Vet driver asked where the chest was. Perplexed, I asked Craig and he said he had decided to help the guy out and put it on the curb instead of on the porch.

Someone had thought it was free and had take i!

I remember sitting in the bathroom and sobbing. With Craig, you take one step forward and twenty back. I asked God what I had ever done to derve him. I really hated him and wanted him dead for what he’d done.

Now, it is 2014. He’s Social Security check is being garnished due to back taxes. For years, I accused him of not making any money, of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. He told me it was all bullshit, that he was making $40,000 a year and doing fine. He though it was perfectly all right to deliver pizza at night so that he could use the tip money to buy gas for his day job. He failed to mention that, as an independent contractor, he hadn’t been paying taxes on any of the pizza delivery income.

Once he lost his truck, he decided to use my SUV to deliver pizza so he “could make money.” He insisted that it was half his, even though my father and I had paid for it. When I refused to let him, he constantly blamed me for his state of poverty and kept secret the fact that the IRS was garnishing his Social Security check. I found out when I opened one of the letters he received in my mail box.

Now he has to collect cans, making $10 a day, in order to eat. It’s all my fault because I won’t let him use my vehicle. In utter despair, I turned to Dr. Phil for help. I saw that he was looking for guests to appear on his show. The subject was little boys in men’s bodies. What could be more perfect?

 I was so excited when the producer contacted me to appear on the show. Finally, I would get vindication from someone who couldn’t be bullied like I had been. Unfortunately, Craig refused to appear under any circumstances. I’m sure he didn’t want to appear to be an ass in front of the whole world which said something to me. All along he has known that he wasn’t in the right. He just knew he could snow me if he fed me enough bs.

 I realized something else too. he is perfectly willing to let me suffer and destroy my life so he could keep his disastrous life the same.

 It occurred to me that as devastated as I am about not being able to get the best help in the world, I may have gotten the blessing from Dr. Phil anyway. I now see Craig in a different light and I will not tolerate his bs anymore. I have filed for a legal separation and gave him a sixty day notice. I have decided to live my dream of turning my house into a foster home for indigent dogs. I will continue to write and live a simple life, no longer inspired to live beyond my means.

 I had to keep shopping, and eating to raise my spirits, but as I devote myself to service, I find I need those things less and less. In studying a photograph of Dr. Phil, I sense that he is related to the color of amber. In doing an online search, I discovered that amber (chasmal) is mentioned in the Bible. Scholars agree that the image is used in Ezekiel to describe the visible glory of God. I do believe that Dr. Phil does convey a sense of brilliance closely associated with our Heavenly Father.

 Another inspiration for me is Mother Teresa, my spirit teacher (See Spirit Teacher blog). At the same time this stuff about the show was happening, I began reading a biography about her and found much inspiration. She set the work on fire, founded numerous charities to help the sick and dying, won numbers awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, with nothing more than the clothes on her back. Even when corporations offered her money, she refused it. She felt the work should be done with donations given from the heart of average people.

 I can do this. I believe it was my calling all along. I contacted the rescue where I got Diasy and offered to foster a dog named Fido. He has been languishing in a rescue with no home to call his own for two years. I aim to change that if I can. Only through my love of animals can I happily live.

Spirit Teacher

Every beauty which is seen here by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all are come."
                                                                        ---Michaelangelo

Last week, I was visiting the brick and mortar bookstore when I saw one particular book on the shelf. Above a photograph of Mother Theresa on the cover, I saw the words, "Spirit Teacher." I blinked and looked again. This time, the words said, "Mother Theresa." I picked up the book and saw that it was a book of her quotations.

I have always felt a strong connection to Mother Theresa and admired her greatly. I think she has done for damaged people what I wanted to do for damaged dogs--heal them.

Tonight, I was reading "Lightworker" by Savannah Arienta, an awesome book by the way. On page 55, she introduces the seven major planes between the physical earth plane and Source (an all-knowing, all powerful entity that dwells within every crevice of the universe). She says that knowing which plane a lightworker descends from is valuable because it will help you define your role as a light bearer here on Earth.

She also mentions several famous people throughout history who have descended from each plane. I most closely identified with the fourth plane, particularly since I'm a writer. And guess what? Mother Theresa is listed as one of the famous lightworkers from the fourth plane!

I take this to mean that I should further investigate who she was in the mortal realm. I will also trying calling her in to see if I can summon her spirit. Something tells me I can...

FROM LIGHTWORkER BY SAVANNAH ARIENTA

"Upon arriving at the fourth plane, a spirit will enter into a dimension where the beauty of sight is not possible for the human eye to process. The quality of sound is so clear and pure that it is beyond words and the brilliance of the light energy is incomprehensible to us on Earth. The fourth plane is a place of glorious love and light. All of the beauty of sight and sound are here.

Lightworkers who descend from the fourth plane work from a place of pure love and healing light. These Lightworkers bring kindness and compassion and hope to humanity. They bring healing messages of love, forgiveness, and unity through their hands. They bring peace and harmony through words, music, or art. The Fourth-plane Lightworkers are artists whose glorious works beautify the Earth plane, the composers who give us music to lift and enlighten our spirits, and the writers and poets who change the world with their words. All works of art, literature, music, and objects of beauty come from this plane.

Lightworkers from this plane can:

* Have strong compassion for others.
* Be very empathetic toward others.
* Have strong creative abilities.
* Be prolific writers.
* Have musical talents.
* Have an eye for beauty.
* Have artistic abilities.
* Have powerful healing capabilities.

Lightworkers from the fourth plane make excellent poets, authors, composers, singers, designers, architects, and energy healers.

Fourth-plane lightworker facts:

Color: green
Element: air
Sensitive body parts: heart, lungs, diaphragm, chest, thymus, circulatory system, shoulders, arms, hands
Basic strengths: love, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, hope, sympathy, empathy
Gemstones and crystals: emerald
Flower essences: bleeding heart, holly, and wild rose
Essential Oils that soothe: majoram and rose
Balancing foods: green vegetables (such as broccoli, green beans, lettuce, Brussel sprouts)

Famous fourth-plane lightworkers:

Vincent Van Gogh, Ludwig van Beethoven, Shakespeare, Frank Lloyd Wright, John Lennon, Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Queen Elizabeth I.