Amazing Days, Gentle Nights, A New Little Pug, Growing In Spirit & Falling In Love With The World...

New very tiny 9 year old rescue pug Penny has
just joined our family. She came from terrible
neglect that caused her to lose most of her sight
and will have several issues to deal with for life
but she is the most precious girl and so full of
love. Here she sits on 2 pillows on the arm of
my chair...

Dear Ones, 

I am so behind on updating this blog I simply can't believe it and I'm so sorry to my loyal and beloved readers. What a time this is! Gardening in intense heat (100 degrees today with a heat index of over 100!), welcoming new little Penny, the sweet pug who came from the rescue with a heart-breaking story. Left outside for a year her eyes were crusted over leaving her 90 percent blind, she had no hair, her skin a red mess of infection and worse, and bleeding and crystals in her urine. She was also from a puppy mill and is so tiny that at 9 years old she is only 14 pounds, very small for a pug. She sleeps on the arm of my over-sized chair or tucked in the crook of my arm. I am so in love with her I just can't tell you. And since she came 2 weeks ago there's been a lot of settling in since she has to follow a regimen of several medications, eye drops, and supplements for the rest of her life. We are now in the swing of things and her two pug brothers from the same rescue think she's been here forever now. I have to carry her out into the yard to go potty but she will trot around the yard like a little trooper. When she wanders too far afield in our big fenced yard I call to her and clap my hands and she runs right to me if in a wiggly crookedy line, her tail wagging all the way. It will never cease to amaze me how these terribly neglected and abused little animals can be so full of love. She is just the sweetest cuddly girl, and I have been doing reiki on her which she is responding to beautifully. So it's been a very busy time.

In addition to the new arrival and the maintaining of the garden I am continuing to work with amazing healers, I do my Reiki II attunement on Sunday and then will go on to the Reiki Master level. While I will do Reiki and other healing modalities on people I would like to center my practice on working with animals. It is a growing and very successful niche in the world of reiki and since my life has longsince been dedicated to rescuing animals, now mainly pugs, and almost exclusively taking in the seniors or disabled ones, even in my own home it will be wonderful to work with these gentle little souls. We will be taking in one more little one some time in the near future. There is such a terrible need. I limit my rescue pugs to 4, but that's a nice number for a little family of companions. The four parrots keep me busy too. I get tickled when someone asks, as they inevitably will, "Don't you get lonely?" (You know, divorced, kids grown and off into their own lives.) to which I always reply, "I might, if I had the time." There's not much time to get lonely around here.

In September I will be taking a 4 day intensive workshop to receive Master Healer certification in Shambhalla, a beautiful method of deepening love and healing on many levels which works beautifully with reiki, and I will be studying many other modalities to expand my knowledge and ability to serve. Even the pugs are great teachers. As I mentioned above these little ones, many who have gone through unspeakable lives filled with abuse and neglect, come through with loving spirits, gentle and tender-hearted. It is a good lesson for us all. Animals truly are some of my greatest teachers.

How could you possibly resist this little face?
Sweet tiny Penny snuggling close to me...

Late night is one of my favorite times. The three pugs and I settle into the over-sized recliner, the boys on my right...

Sammy sleeping belly up using 2 year old puppy
Tanner as a pillow!

... and Penny on my right. As they sleep around me, half on me, I am covered with soft, warm, sleeping teddy bear creatures, and I thank God for them every day.

So as I work close to the earth and the wonders of Nature, care for the little ones so in need of gentleness and love and giving it back to me tenfold, continue my studies to prepare for setting up a healing practice, and work on writing my book there never seems to be time enough to do everything. I like to update this blog weekly and am sorely behind these last couple of months, but I intend to update more often even if shorter entries. I want to reach out and touch those who are kind enough to visit, many again and again and again. You are so dear to me faithful readers. I owe you my best and I will try harder. It is pure grace to be sitting here writing an entry.

In this last year and a half as I have moved deeper and deeper into a life of spirit, wanting to serve others to the best of my ability, I find myself falling in love with the world, and the tiniest living things on our planet captivate me. In the garden now there are ladybugs, the magical praying mantis, birds too many to count at my numerous feeders, and the mischievous squirrels who are bent on turning the feeders upside down in their attempt to eat everything they can before I shoo them off! And all the dear little plants. I buy tiny own root roses, small rooted cuttings from home gardeners on eBay, and I plant them in an area of the garden where the little ones grown on before they are large enough and sturdy enough to plant in the ground. It is truly a wonder to see them grow big and tall and put out buds and burst into flower. I have my camera back and ready to start taking garden pictures which I will share very soon. Some of the roses have grown big enough that I am transplanting them around the cottage, and the front porch is surrounded by ten hanging baskets, four huge pots with roses and clematis growing up the pillars to be trained, as I have already begun, to drape the porch with roses. There are herbs aplenty and the porch is redolent of the scents of lavender, rosemary, lemon sage, fragrant geraniums, huge pink gerbera daisies planting amidst the herbs and so much more. Bright yellow coreopsis, petunias in many colors and lilac colored colored verbena, impatiens in a rainbow of colors, oh, the world is so full of so many wonders this time of year. 

And so dear readers I have been remiss in writing here, but my heart was with you and you were so very often in my thoughts. I am planning a great many offshoots of my budding business, Maitri's Heart & Hands, that come out of being a writer, journal teacher of 30 years, healer, gardener, artist, and more. The many facets of my life are coming together, all of a piece, in the most wondrous ways and I can't wait to share them with you. I offer all that I do in love. I send gentle reiki energy out to you in waves. Feel it like a breeze against your cheek. Know how very much you are loved. We are never alone, even sitting by ourselves in our own homes. Tap into the energy that surrounds you, feel it, you can if you try. I feel it very strongly in my daily meditations, 3 times a day. I feel it when I am washing dishes, imagining all of the other women, and men, standing at their sinks, hands in hot water and bubbles as they do their daily chore, and I feel a oneness with the whole world around me. I feel that with you now.

 Take tender care, dear readers, and know that if I am not here as often as I'd like I am in the garden or settling in a new little pug, or working on that which will enable me to reach out to others to heal and soothe their spirits in need of mending, and working on a book that I hope will be a comfort to others. Days fly by too fast, but it is important for me to be here too. I am thinking of creating an e-mail newsletter. Leave a note for me on the board at the top of this page on the right if you think you would be interested in such a thing. I'd really like to know.

Walk gently on the earth, love as widely as possible, smile at all you meet, and remember that you must fill your own well first to have something to give to others. The garden will feed you, as will little animals, as will cooking a meal, waving to a neighbor, helping one person each day in the smallest of ways. I wish you days filled with joy, and rivers of happiness. I wish you love. I send it from my little cottage to you, wherever you are. I wish you peace.
 

Now I will take the pugs out into the yard in the moonlight for the last time, and we will snuggle into our chair, and end the day, our little family, in peaceful harmony. And I will count my blessings, as I do each day, and I will have tremendous gratitude for all of the people and animals and living growing things that fill my life, and I will count you in my prayers.

Warm Regards and Deepest Blessings to All,

© 2011 Maitri Libellule

All Rights Reserved