Love and Leaf Piles

I just took my dogs for a walk. One corner house had several huge piles of leaves along the street. All three dogs joyously waded into each pile up to their chins and bouncily crunched through. It made me laugh to see them obviously having fun.

Awhile ago I read in Scientific American that scientists were beginning to change their view that animals were mere machines running on programs of instinct alone. They might actually form thoughts. Clearly these researchers had never spent any time with animals. My dogs enjoy a good joke, get embarrassed, and empathize with each other, me, and even other species. They aren't human, but they certainly aren't instinct machines. Tesla is the guardian and enforcer of the Dog Book of Rules, Libby is always scheming for Tesla's job, and Darwin, well, he's a big, sweet doofus.

I see aspects of personality and thought among the birds at my feeders and even the fish in my aquarium. I have conversations on some level with them all. (I talk to plants, too, but, in their case, I do think the conversation is in my head.)

The universe can be a 'small world' network. We can connect with everything if we're willing to look for the way. And the way is love.

As Hugh MacLeod says:

...in the end, only love matters. Success and fame and wealth and even health all fade in time, and in the end all you have is love. And love is what matters.