OBSERVATIONS

Penny's From Heaven Foundation's Therapy and Service Dogs are little pieces of brilliant light that enter rooms and lives, and for the time they are there they provide solace, peace, comfort, joy, healing and in many cases courage.

In the darkness, sometimes we all wait for those moments of light found in the brilliant security and love of a dog.  Our therapy dogs are sensitive and people focused and our service dogs are hyper-observant and seem to notice the invisible knots wrapped around people's souls and hearts. Sometimes our souls whisper gently, nudging us to a place we have never been before. These dogs, our gifts from God, are the catalyst, providing us with the ability to take another step, another breath, another chance. With them comes trust and a love most of us have never experienced, a total and complete acceptance without judgement, without cause.

It occured to me deep into the night last evening, that I want everything neat and tidy and clean and organized. I loathe disruption, confusion, and irritations. But that is not the way life is.  I fight like a salmon swimming upstream, but the current is too strong, the waves too overwhelming. This knowledge alone can lead me to a place deeper inside of myself.  A place where I find my true self, a place where I have learned to appreciate life at a different level.

Messages are offered to all of us.  The problem lies in our ability to stand still long enough to accept them, to hear them, to listen to them.  Sometimes we are waiting, waiting to get our wings, waiting to remember how to fly.  These are the times when a cherished best friend awaits, captures our heart and leads us out of the darkness. Sometimes this best friend is a dog who will sit beside us and wait with us, until we remember how to flap our wings once again and how to live in a world that is much different from any we once remembered.

Moments and places of darkness can be places where you have the time and space to nurture yourself, a place where you quietly wait for the time when your future once again lies in front of you and you see glimpes of daylight once again.  

To my wounded warriors, military sexual assault survivors, and all suffering from the horrors of PTSD, this new year I wish you peace and healing and the love of a dog to guide you out of the darkness and into the light.

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PENNY'S FROM HEAVEN FOUNDATION, INC.

TRAIN A DOG SAVE A WARRIOR

13423 BLANCO ROAD, STE 218

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 78216