My husband and I said goodbye to our dog Piper today. I cried a lot when it happened. I found that I cried more than I had ever cried when someone or some pet died in the past. I couldn’t understand at first. Then, I just tried to stop understanding. It really didn’t matter. I heard a voice in my head say, “Let yourself feel this pain.”
I found myself in that moment feeling my heart breaking just a little bit because for the last twelve years, I had taken this dog into my heart. She wasn’t easy to love, but every day, I chose to love her. She taught me great lessons in love, and she made me a better person. I think the best lesson was that even the broken can be loved and have so much to share with the rest of the world.
I have to remember that the pain I feel today is part of the joy that she brought me all those years. If I never loved her, it wouldn’t hurt now. So, I will feel pain and I will thank God for it because those years of love were precious. They were an amazing experience that I am blessed to have had. As I said goodbye to my Piper, I thought to myself that it was such a shame that she was abused and thrown away because no one except my husband and I really got to know what a miracle she really was.
I may be crying. I may be in pain. Yet my heart is filled with love and gratitude for the miracle that was my dog Piper.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
