Love and Healing

Migration: Already Sold
Freeform embroidery on painters linen with beadwork

As an artist I am used to finding out that a piece I am working on just isn't going to be finished.  The composition might be wrong, the colors off, the fabric the wrong texture--and no matter what improvisation or flexible alteration in creation I try, the piece just fails.  Well, that happens in life too.  Normally I have something funny or quirky to say.  Today I am just not able to.  Our family has to return our family dog of two and one-half years because she has become aggressive in sporadic situations.  You know nothing is perfect, but it is so strange to love something so obviously wrong for you and/or flawed.  I told our children that while humans have a huge capacity for love, they also have a huge ability to heal and recover from pain and sorrow.  Our dog is spending the weekend at a "farm spa" so we can have a birthday party here without me losing my mind, and while she is away I both enjoy the freedom and choose to remember her affection and quirky moments.  Like, how when training her not to jump on the counters we would put wasabi or hot peppers up there as a deterrent.  The problem was that she eats so quickly that when she jumped up I am not sure the spice even hit her tongue before it reached her stomach!   Or, how when we hike in the woods, she runs ahead and then turns and waits for us to catch up. Or the way she loves to chase snow when you shovel, or, as I mentioned before, loves it when you shovel the snow in her face.  There was also this time when she was a puppy and she was playing with a chew ring, and she got tangled in it with her front paws caught in the front and the rest of her trapped on the other side wriggling around.  So, dogs change.  And the one you thought you had grows into one that you can't live with despite all your best efforts. And love sometimes isn't enough.  And then you have to cause your children pain in order to save them from worse future pain.   Sometimes, you have to know when to say goodbye.