Puppylicious

Keira. 

Chopin, Silvi and their puppies. 

Melissa, my ginger labrador

Irvin Yalom, the famous psychiatrist,  does suggest that human bond is one of the limited things that can relieve us from the anxiety of death and the only real source of fulfilment in our mortal life. During his work with several patients with terminal cancer or even adults with severe death anxiety, he used the human bond in order to put under control the overwhelming stress on the prospect of death.


What he has not explored however, is the second most important bond. The bond between animals and humans. Dogs and horses and rarely cats are offering a lot to cancer patients, giving them the sense of unconditional love and caring. They also drive thinking away from ominous, unsettling thoughts. 
Of course, none of these are news but one cannot overstress enough their importance in the quality of life of patients. Patients tend to feel lonely and lost in their often nightmarish life events, but loved ones and spending time with animals soothes these feelings and gives meaning to life.

After my second surgery, during chemo, I got Melissa, a ginger labrador, that changed my life. She is constantly causing chaos because of her puppy energy but spending one day without her makes me lose my smile. Sometimes we can her Meli, from the greek word for honey because she is the sweetest one, sometimes we call her Melissaki, from the greek word for little bee, because she keeps buzzing for hours over our heads. In any case, she gets tons of love, my spoilt little one.

Notes on a cemetery..

I always found the sight of cemeteries appealing.
One might rush into a conclusion that I am morbid, but truth is far from that.
Cemeteries can be fascinating. They represent the culture and the beliefs of a religion and of individuals and blah blah blah..
I could say so much about their significance culturally but in the end what draws me into these places is always the calmness. There is a sensation of peace and loneliness that leads to deeper thoughts. Thoughts of our transient nature, of impermanence, of life and death, of wishes, of time.
Monks and philosophers used to keep rooms with view of cemeteries or they kept in their room objects reminding of death.
"Memento mori" they called it. Quoting Wikipedia: "[it is] a Latin phrase translated as "Remember your mortality", "Remember you must die" or "Remember you will die".It refers to a genre of artworks that vary widely but which all share the same purpose: to remind people of their mortality.."
And remembering our mortality is -opposed to what most people believe- the start of the most fulfilled and rich life. For knowing how to die is knowing how to live.
Being aware of how short and unpredictable life is, lets us appreciate the moments. Prompts us not to keep malice between each other, because what today angers us in aspect of death it means nothing, while love and kindness means everything.
Would you keep being angry at your partner if you knew you would never see him the next day? No.
Would you cry and be depressed over what a client shouted at you at work if you knew you had only a month left to live? No
My favorite psychiatrist-author ,Irvin Yalom, says :"Although the physicality of death destroys man, the idea of death saves him".
In the end, conscience is what separates us from animals, and knowledge is our burden and our privilege as a species, as God's image creatures and as individuals.