For me, the messages from animals, which I am always working to decipher, are about trust, love, paying attention. Animals are not about seperating us from humans. They don’t sue one another, or write nasty e-mails, or call each other names, or know envy or bitterness. Bit by bit, animals are teaching me how to love. How to listen, be empathetic, suppress anger, overcome fear in mistrust.

In our culture, animals are often used as a reason to dislike people, or sit in judgement of them, or hate and attack them. That is not what animals are about for me. Or for Maria.