Resetting our intentions in the New Year!

January 13, 2025 Being Mindful About Our Choices and Making Them Loving and Compassionate.

January 13, 2025•14 min read

It's not a new thing for my Mom to be thinking about how animals are treated in the world. But It does seem like it has grabbed my Mom's focus over the past few months.

My Mom has thought about becoming a vegetarian or even a vegan over the years, but she's never made a go of it.

She's had many sessions with Crissy Jory (an Ayurvedic practitioner) here at Lake Tahoe, well before she moved here.

The values in that practice are those of non-violence towards all living beings.

That would mean no meat, but there is a place for meat as medicine for those who need it. (My Mom thinks she needs it.)

Brett Howard, my Mom's friend and Pilates instructor (for nearly 10 years), is a vegetarian and he makes cooking in that style as easy as can be!

He once put Thanksgiving dinner together in 1.5 or 2 hours! (My Mom has never done it once in her life and she's pretty certain it would be a week long process!)

No offense to my Mom, but she's not a cook of ANY sort, so starting a whole different way of eating and cooking is laughable (sorry Mom).

Well, anyway, the pressure does seem to be on, living here in California.

John, my Mom's friend from the meditation group, (maybe you'll recall that my Mom's Senior horse Max pushed John right out of the paddock, when he came to the ranch once) well, John's whole family are either vegetarians or vegan, for decades!

We're surrounded by vegetarians, vegans, pescatarians, no fruitarians yet, but we're sure they're out there!

I'm not sure what's happening to my Mom but she seems to be transforming, mentally at least.

She kind of had a reset after the Holidays and all the food and champagne. (Does that happen to all humans?)

And then she had some kind of allergy asthma coughing thing that dragged on.

And what came with it was no alcohol! Prosecco and chips, and red wine, out the door! 😲

So now, she's awake at night thinking about all sorts of things. One night she couldn't sleep and was crying about dairy cows, and another night about River the beautiful horse who has the baby Echo.

More later on River.

Maybe it's the animal communication courses that's bringing on all this sensitivity. And the animal communication teacher Penelope Smith is not only opening my Mom's mind (and 250+ other students from around the world-via Zoom) to communicating not only with animals (I didn't now that insects are animals too, they're called arthropods....who knew?) but trees and rivers and mountains....it doesn't end!

Oh yes, "spirit animals" are of course on Penelope's list of communicators too!

She says we are all "ONE". (I listen in.)

I hope I'm not sounding like this is a drag because my Mom is seeing all of this as pretty cool. Penelope says we're "expanding" ourselves!

That made me laugh, because you, our readers, have already expanded yourselves by reading what a "Spirit Dog" is writing!

I'm dead and communicating! How much more expansive can you get!

My Mom's meditation group also has a Mindfulness Training session once a month.The focus or purpose my Mom said, is to help to create a more healthy and compassionate world.

This session also adds to my Mom's personal "expansion". The 5 "precepts" or principles, are: reverence for life, true happiness, true love, loving speech and deep listening, nourishment and healing.

And this week there was a special Buddhist prayer ceremony for fire and earthquake victims from Deer Park Monastery, sending spiritual support and compassion to all those impacted around the world(especially Los Angeles and Tibet).

This was via YouTube stream.

So, my promise of choosing only love to share....well, we have to add compassion to that list, obviously.

And if you can't, then I think you've gotten lost and clicked on the wrong Blog.

Geez, I've started out about how animals are treated and there's been A LOT, A LOT in between, and more to come.

Here are 3 animal stories:

1. Facebook has certainly been part of my Mom's mind expansion regarding animals and animal rescues. She thinks she first saw a rescued cow on Facebook, pretty recently. The cow had been a dairy cow for 19 years!

(I don't know how that could be possible but even if it's 1 year, it's too much.)

The video was not about the prior life of the cow, it was about how well this cow is being cared for now.

Oh and I think the cow was blind.

My Mom however, was thinking about this poor cow again, after she read an article about how diary cows are treated and the visual of rows of cows whose heads are held in place in a stall, where they eat, are artificially inseminated and milked 3x a day.

Apparently cows can produce a gallon of milk a day after they give birth but diary cows today are bred to produce 7 or more gallons of milk a day.

(This is beyond imagination.)

The cows are artificially inseminated yearly, give birth, their calves are taken away from them immediately, they produce milk for 10 months, they have a 2 month gap and then give birth again.

The cycle continues until the diary cow becomes infertile, ill, has low milk production, etc. These beautiful animals are "used" for 3-5 years (or more) and then sent to slaughter.

My Mom thinks they're probably happy to die after living like that.

Well anyway, this is the type of thing my Mom is thinking about in the middle of the night.

Her heart breaking, thinking about these poor animals.

By the way, my Mom read that female calves are immediately taken from their mother, to some kind of warm hut or something and the males are either killed at birth or sent for veal and beef production.

My Mom is no expert, she only knows what she has read.

We both hope we're wrong but we can't help but believe it's true.

And it's not only diary cows and it's not only in our country.

Oh, and you can't believe how they collect semen for all these inseminations and it's cows, cattle, horses...

That's a whole other story.

Oh, and how about nose rings to control animals and even used on calves to wean them from their mothers. What has our world come to and where is it going? Oy.

My Mom was never a milk drinker as an adult, but she does use 1/2 & 1/2 in her coffee. So apparently ethical dairy farming and farming families do exist, and they do take care of their cows with integrity and intention.

We truly hope that means "humanely". The company, Organic Valley, seems to be one of these. Now my Mom has to find ethical farmers for beef, pork and chickens.

We'll let you know if we find any. Or let us know if you know of any!

Some say that eating meat more sustainably requires a balance between ethical and environmental considerations.This could include reducing meat consumption, prioritizing animal welfare and environmental sustainability.

By the way, my Mom is not a journalist, you probably know that she was a lawyer and a judge.

Her thoughts and my writing, are generated by sincere interests/concerns for justice, open mindedness and heartedness, and a deep compassion and love for those who are vulnerable.

What we eat and drink comes with a heavy price. My Mom thinks we are ingesting the suffering that these animals endure.

Their histories are now a part of our bodies. Maybe human physical and mental suffering are a consequence of how we have treated other living beings, our Earth, our water, our air.

That can't possibly be a new thought.

2. The 2nd animal share is about River, the stunning horse who gave birth to Echo this year. My Mom had not been out to the horse ranch since right before Christmas. (She didn't wear anything to cover her nose and mouth while brushing the horses (she thinks this added to her asthma issues.)

Anyway, when she went yesterday, she actually didn't recognize River!! The tallest most beautiful horse in the world! And by the way, Chief, my Mom's newest senior addition, had been moved from where he used to be and was now next to River.

Well, my Mom didn't recognize either of them!! What???

There were reasons for that, and when my Mom inquired as to where River was, and was directed right back to where she had just walked from, she was SOOO embarrassed and apologized to both River and Chief, PROFUSELY!!!

But that's not what I wanted to tell you about River.

This is.

River's baby Echo, had just recently been moved to another place where horses her own age are. (I don't think she's a year yet).

My Mom had originally heard (and maybe we shared that previously), that Echo would be weaned from her Mom, slowly, (first put in a paddock next to her Mom, not in the same paddock), then moved to a place with other horses her age, then eventually to come back to our ranch.

We sure hope Echo will be in a paddock next to her Mom again.

This is NOT a situation like in some horse-breeding farms where a mare is impregnated, carries her baby, gives birth, and then has the foal taken form her (sold) at 6 months old.

My Mom was told that Echo will always be with her Mom.

We hope so. ❤️

So, after my Mom's apologies to River, River came over to the fence and my Mom touched her forehead and my Mom burst into tears. She said she felt River's sadness. River looked so downtrodden as she slowly moved towards my Mom.

Her beautiful proud stance, as she stood next to Echo as Echo was growing up, was gone. It also seemed that her glistening dark coat was now much lighter, even around her muzzle.

My Mom said she told River she could feel her pain and River let my Mom's hand rest on her forehead. Afterwards when my Mom was brushing Chief, River was close to the fence between them and River let my Mom brush her a bit.

We certainly hope that the treats and kindness my Mom showed River was acknowledged and that River felt at least a little comforted.

The 3rd animal story:

3. Yesterday my Mom of course also spent time with Scooter and Wiki. When my Mom first arrived at the ranch, she gave Scooter and Wiki cookies, and then Liam and Faralli, who live in the paddock next to them.Then my Mom started to groom Scooter until their lunch arrived.

By the way, Wiki did not come near my Mom.

My Mom decided to check on the other horses she does not groom, to say hello and offer them treats (approved by Kristen the owner, and Sophia, my Mom's former riding instructor, because my Mom treats all 3 of Sophia's beautiful horses).

After visiting the others and having groomed Chief and a bit of River, my Mom went back to Scooter and Wiki.

Well, you won't believe this.

For the very first time since the very first time my Mom met Wiki, a born in the wild, horse, who actually let my Mom groom him on DAY ONE and never since!, let my Mom touch his face, his ears and let her brush both sides of his neck over the fence but hey, it was a breakthrough!

This made my Mom EXTREMELY happy, and of course lovable Scooter was brushed over the fence too.

The two guys right next to each other with Wiki letting my Mom touch him!

It was AWESOME!

My Mom could feel the peacefulness and calmness of being around these horses.

They truly give my Mom peace, just being in their presence.

Well, those are the 3 animal stories.

Can you feel the Love?

Feel the Compassion?

Try to choose love and compassion in your life.

Keep your eyes and heart open for opportunities to share them or receive them, if you can.

My Mom says it's not easy all the time but there are moments.

And if it's too hard at times, be loving and compassionate with yourself.

Perhaps if you begin with loving yourself, and all that you've been through, then perhaps next time there's an opportunity, you'll be able to be loving and compassionate in your choices, with yourself, and then with other beings.

We can do it.

Here are some photos I hope you like: