(Note, see posts June 4, 5, 6, and 7).

On my walk early this morning I ran into two people with dogs, one after another. Impulsively, I stopped them both, to ask about their dogs. Two wonderfully heartfelt conversations resulted. Makes me realize that I don’t even need a dog with me to make an instant personal connection with a stranger. All I have to do is stop him or her, blurt out “I just lost my dog,” and instantly, their faces fall, they nearly double over in shared pain.

WOW. There’s good reason why GOD is DOG, spelled backwards.

Where would we be, as a human race, without our beloved canine companions who not only love and guard us, but enable us to share our vulnerable feelings with other humans, without embarrassment or apology.

It’s just there, that shared pain.

A pain that courses through the entire world, especially now, with three war fronts, all threatening to detonate the entire planet.