Some dogs are spirit dogs. They enter your life in a mystical way, and change it. They alter the light and space around them. They mark the passages of humans, and accompany them on their journeys.  I have been blessed to know three Spirit Dogs in my life. Orson, who led me out of the desert and into my promised land, Rose, who gave me the strength to survive here, and Frieda, who brought Maria and I together and made our love possible.

Now there is a fourth, Red. He has entered my life at a time of transition, and he has come to guide me to the next place, although that has not been revealed to me. I love the mystics and in some ways, have become one, I know and am told. It just means I have been awakened and am opening up to the world, cutting through fog and fear to try and live a life with love, meaning and purpose. The system in which we live can only survive if we are frightened all of the time and spent all of our hope and money on trying to be safe. When we wake up, we leave the system and are tossed out into the world in a different way.

It’s the hero’s journey I think and the people on it are not heroes but pilgrims, seekers, people who break out of the system for better or worse, and go their own peculiar way. Campbell said that magical helpers in the form of animals appear to get them through. I know Red has a purpose for me, I do not know what it is. In its own time, it will be revealed. I am lucky to know Spirit Dogs. They find me, or I find them. It doesn’t matter.