Think there’s a God?
If not, soldier on!
If so, we might find common ground in the idea of a Universal Mind that is behind everything. Is God watching out over you? No. God is watching out from you. The mathematical point of pure I AM that looks out of you is God. Same as me. Same as all people. All animals. All plants.
Same as everything. Even the creatures like cars and computers. Like rocks and mountains. Like raindrops and oceans and all the myriad things that we ignorantly call non-living.
Can you understand this? At the core of everything is You.
This is the basis for what I want to address here.
To paraphrase the name of an old American television show, animals are people too. What is to me the most happy and joyous gift bestowed by having the Stone is the ability to commune with previously “alien” forms of life. Whether with pets or wild animals, the Knowledge that we are the same gives us the ability to share ourselves with each other. (I know, not making sense. Symbols. Rise above.)
The so-called “Golden Rule” is not just to be used amongst other humans. Every creature you encounter needs to be respected and given the same amount of attention as you would give to yourself because they are yourself. Once you are aware of this, magical things can happen.
My first realization along these lines took place many years ago. It was soon after our marriage. My wife was at work and I was home alone. Shortly before she left that morning, she mentioned a plan to purchase ant-traps on her way home to get rid of some ants that were increasingly being found in our apartment. Later that day, I myself encountered a large number of ants on the kitchen counter. Half in jest and speaking out loud, I told them that they were not safe here and that my wife was planning to kill them. They all stopped moving. Then it occurred to me that I was speaking to a single creature. A hive-mind. Then I repeated myself but this time with the air of a concerned friend explaining to them the danger and why they should go away. I described the poison. How unwitting “workers” would bring the deceitful food home and thus kill their entire “family” including the Queen.
Immediately following that “conversation”, I left the room and apparently, so did they. We never saw another ant in that apartment again. That package of ant-traps sat unopened in our closet for several years before we finally threw it away.
I was amazed at what happened but back then I still believed in “coincidences” and so did not mention any of this to my wife.
Over the many years since, I have developed the habit of greeting the creatures I encounter as equals and with the sincere desire know what it is like to be them at that moment. Because of course, I AM them at that moment.
Then, astonished and delighted by our newfound kinship, we dance.