The Hollow Path Experiential Therapy

THE FIVE THAT CAME DOWN

 

Meet Wisdo

No one is the world is like Wisdo. She funny, charming, adventurous, magnificently friendly and likable, fluffy, warm, emotionally exceptionally intelligent and she’s shepherding, She’s the one you want to be as a human.  Her name is Wisdo, like wisdom without the “m”, because I could see when she was a puppy and played in her water bowl that she had a certain kind of divinely given wisdom on how to enjoy life.

 

Meet Muna

Muna is the one who got away.  She went to live with another family and have a life as the only dog in the house. Muna, the 5th of the original five and got her name for her sweetly innocent and believing face.  She embodied the sense that emuhah, faith, lives in the world.  Kind, gentle, swift, sweet, lovable trusting Muna.  We miss her every day.

 

Meet Ilu

The one with the knowing eyes.  Ilu’s the one that carries the wisdom of the ages.  She perceptive, smart and knowing.  She’s the who first came out from under the trashcan checked to see if I was ok.  Then she went and called the others to come join. It was Ilu that created the family. She’s the one you go to when you just need reassurance that there is kindness and goodness in the world.

 

Sof

Sof Sof, she was the last and final one to emerge from under the big green dumpster in Dimona. Shy, graceful, and overly sensitive, Sof is the black one with the white on the end of her tail that reminds you that the universe is without end, the world began from a void and the darkness is sometimes where you have to go to find the answers.  Sof Sof, ein sof and sof ha derech, she’s the one that just wants to be loved.

 

And Cavebear

My bear, my beloved soul bear who extended my spirit out into the world. She was a gorgeous warm brown; protective, devoted, athletic, agile, and the bearer of all my burdens.  She was the vital link to what makes us alive, instinctual, and tuned in to the world; in case we forgot it for even a moment.  Cavebear was my link to the earth walker in me that wants to live by the rules of universal nature.  She was my dear close companion and she made sure I knew every day that I was not alone and I was guarded by the wild wonderful animal kingdom.  She made sure I would not lose touch with my wolf nature; the animal some say from dogs and bears both descend.  Forever standing vigil over my heart and spirit, this very special Cavebear walked through 7 years of aliyah with me, fiercely tending to my trials, my tribulations, and my tears.   It was easy to believe this dog would be by my side until the very last breath of my life.  And then one day she jumped into my seat of the car, looked me in the eye, sent me a very powerful message, and minutes later took her last breath.  I was stunned.  I had no say. She was gone.  I learned with Hollow that they come to teach us and to walk with us until the moment they have done their part and then they depart.  They leave us with their pawprints on our souls and they return to the wild wonderful animal kingdom. 

 

I believe Cavebear shared my burdens and then took them with her so they would not live in my body and make me sick. When someone so deeply close to you dies, animal or human, you’re given access to lessons about the universe that you maybe never knew you could experience. I was shocked that she actually left and again reminded that life constantly offers the unbelievable.  Aliyah, immigration, living in Israel is a constant mindboggling experience of what you couldn’t have imagined.

 

Cavebear was and is Canaani.  The only certified Israeli breed of dog.  They are loyal, extremely smart, of their own smart sense and not just obeying their human when the human doesn’t understand the ways of nature and asks something not sensible.  Canaan dogs are as close as you can get to wild dogs and wolves and they have maintained characteristics that have come through natural selection and not human intervention.  Their senses are honed, survival focused, and unbelievable reliable.  She knew my every mood and the moment it changed. She had different sounds for kittens than for cats and I always knew when she found a hedgehog because of her distinctive communication sound for hedgehog alert. She never hurt them, just identified them and let me know.  She had a level of communicating that would make even the most sensitive observer marvel.  And for this, she was a gift. To know this kind of bond and connection in a relationship that is uncomplicated, profoundly forgiving, and purely curious keeps us in touch with our true nature and our animal nature. 

 

We all have these instincts and wisdoms of the natural world and if we were as smart as our canine guides, we would learn the subtleties of observation, the keen use of our senses, and the reliable trust in our body’s wisdom.  We all have of this in us; just along the side the human capacity of learning and loving. It’s just that some of us keep closer to it by staying close to our animals and pets.  My bear was one of a kind and it seemed that she came down straight to the purpose of enlivening my life.  A gift from Hollow? Perhaps.  One went up and five came down. 

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And Charuvy

Charuvy

This magically charming disproportioned dog seems to be the marvelous gift of her forbears.  She appeared near my house one rainy day under a well-loved carob tree.  She’s crazy for eating the tasty sweet brown carob that litters the ground beneath its magnificent canopy.  She masterfully munches on the large pod-like tough chewy fruits and adeptly spits out the seeds. It seems that’s how she might have fed herself in the weeks she ran the streets on her own terms as people unsuccessfully tried to find a trace of a home or identification for her.  Somehow I hadn’t seen her in all my walking… until one serendipitous rain drenched day under the carob tree.  Charuvy affectionately gets her name from her unique love for eating carob.  Carob in Hebrew is Charuv.  It bears the three letter shoresh, or root letters, chrv/חרב. If you move the letters around you get חבר, which is the word for friend. It’s also the same sounds as the root letters in Cavebear.  The C is also ח, like in Chanukah; B and V, ב are the same letter in Hebrew; and R is .רThis letter play has a long history in mystical and biblical Hebrew and seems to be part in parcel for Charuvy’s mystical appearance.