chance meetings & second chances

When I was a kid I wanted to be a garbage man or a guest on the Tonight Show. I’m an inveterate garbage picker, half my furniture has been “found”, and this, this is my version of the Tonight Show. I get to chatter endlessly.

Lately, I’m discovering things I didn’t know I wanted the first time I came across them. Drunk as a skunk in 1987 (most of the 70s and 80s actually) I picked a guy up in the Lone Star Cafe, a singer in the country band, Atlanta. They were booked at the Dutchess County Fair and the next morning I found myself hungover, hopping pigs and cherry pies.  I’ve been back for 15 of the last 20. I’m hooked on livestock, pie competitions, pitchmen & deep fried everythings.

From 15 to 23 I had the same dream every night. In it I die violently four days after my 23rd birthday. I believe in omens and didn’t make any long term plans outside of staying drunk.  Ten years past my expiration date, I ended my old life and got sober — four days after my 33rd birthday (just because I believe doesn’t mean I can read the bones). When I turned 50 I thought, okay, maybe I need to make some plans. I still wasn’t sure what I wanted, but the Dalai Lama says everyone wants to be happy. For me, happy has fur and four legs.

Ten years ago I’d volunteered at an animal shelter and heard about something called Tellington Touch, an approach to working with animals that was helping feral cats be more adoptable.

A year ago I took a workshop on Intuitive Diagnostics for Animals with Brent Atwater. She’s working the slightly crazy side of the street and if there’s something to her, I didn’t see it. But the road to happy isn’t a straight line, so I wrote that path off, but not the journey.

I finally took a workshop on Tellington Touch with Edie Jane Eaton. This was the real deal & I’m a card carrying member of the Church of all things Edie Jane.

In Ttouch I met another sober woman my age and she was getting her MA in Animal Behavior.  I borrowed her focus and vision and enrolled in grad school.

I showed up for an animal communication workshop in Canada (at the Church of Edie Jane) with Lauren McCall. I’m still a skeptic, but I’m also the girl who stops to talk to dogs, but only if they talk to me first. The best part was staying on a 400 acre sheep farm next to Edie Jane’s place. (My brain says, did you hear what you said? the best part was the sheep farm, pay attention, puh-lease!)

When the economy took my office down to a four day work week, I knew I wanted to do something compassionate with my day off. I contacted several animal shelters. Nothing fit.

Two months ago I attended a humane education conference at Green Chimneys, largely because Linda Tellington-Jones was presenting. The following week my graduate class was there for field trip. 10 years ago I’d been offered a job there as a teacher. I wasn’t ready. Maybe I’m still not ready to be a teacher. But I’m teachable today.

I found my fit. Next month I’m going with the Green Chimneys crew, the kids & the critters, to present at the Putnam County 4H Fair. Full circle and sober.

I don’t know where this is all going, and I don’t need to.

I know the power of declaration. I once said I owned too much stuff, that I needed to lighten my load. I was, within a month, robbed and served an eviction notice. The universe takes the most direct route, I’m now specific when making declarations. I said I wanted to do something compassionate with my free day and two months later I found myself at Green Chimneys, working with farm animals.

Now I’m saying I want my life to keep moving in that direction, to earn my wages with compassion,  working with animals, outside of a steel and concrete office. Let’s see where this ride is going to go next…