Mingo
In America, I have settled into an apartment in my family's hometown. Without a car, I make walking my new life and develop a regular route to the food market, the pharmacy, and the hardware store. At the latter one night, I see a ceramic fox that seems like one I have known before (an experience through energy). As I have to keep returning for purchases, I find my visits now become opportunities to visit this fox that is on display with other fox and also bear at the store's entrance. I have had numerous connections with certain animals and birds in the past that have been sources of inner communication, and so one night I stop. Its eyes had previously appeared to be engaging mine; this time I look directly into them. By inner thought I ask, "Do you have a message?" Why would I buy a statue that obviously will cost more than I find appropriate to pay—what I am not yet facing is that I am going to do just that. The clerk explains that this is a Woodland Fox and takes my sixty dollars, paid hastily so as not to think about what I have done. Placed on a large desk in my small bedroom, it returns my gaze as I wonder about a name, then I hear... Flamingo. "Ridiculous!" A flamingo is a large, pink, water-dwelling tropical bird. I reject that one and keep thinking, but without inspiration. Then the name comes, shortened—Mingo. While it is neither a real animal nor a playmate, nevertheless Mingo conveys comfort and is part of inner child awareness that what is real for me within may also be real for me in the adult world.
Marmalade
Marmalade arrived at my home in a small gift box of a potholder, a kitchen towel, a small pottery slab sized for a spent tea bag, and a postcard of a special town I had known. A friend of over 40 years had sent it, had understood how big a change it is to move from India to America for she had been in the Peace Corps in the Punjab. Before the box was even fully unpacked, I had found my gaze focused on a tiger* whose adorableness grabbed my attention. Finding a loop in the orange binding (useful as it was intended as a potholder), I decided that the tiger, by now named "Marmalade" for its coloring, was going to be framed for my galley kitchen where I would daily—and reliably—see my new family member.
Reese
When I visit my family in my new town, as soon as my voice is heard at the entrance door, calling "Romie, Reese," two dogs race to meet me. Putting my purse aside, I immediately sit down on the floor. I talk, I hug, I receive a wet nose, moving my face aside and back, but without stopping the nose in pursuit. All the while I'm scratching a chest, a back, behind ears, and always an upturned belly as they roll over, until we both have had enough. And they're off! Reese, the younger, is the more affectionate. Much older Romie, I observe, is the wiser. One day, at lunchtime, as I stood at the kitchen counter cutting zucchini, I found Reese had quickly nosed around one knee and positioned half of her body between my knees. Stopped there, I looked down at her, then around to where my family behind me was watching. One of them said, smiling, "She likes to do that." Reese has another unusual penchant for closeness. She likes to be carried around on a strong shoulder from where she looks out from a different world of height, as a curious and shouldered child does. In a serendipitous family photo taken with both dogs, Romie is the furry, comfortable pillow underneath and Reese the messenger of unconditional love—a full length portrait.
My realization is, "When in the words of Joseph Campbell, we 'follow our bliss,' we are without a need for understanding, or explanations."
* See: "The Young Old: Inspired by The Economist article “The New Old," Purely Prema, July 3, 2019, with pottery photos by a friend of over 40 years.
https://www.purelyprema.com/welcome/2019/7/3/the-young-old-inspired-by-the-economist-article-the-new-old
* Chinese New Year 2022 fell on Tuesday, February 1. Dr. Lin of the Chinese Studies department at the University of Melbourne wrote: "Chinese New Year is a time for people to share their kindness and generosity. . . . 2022 is the Year of the Tiger . . . as a sign of the zodiac, the tiger symbolizes strength, courage, confidence, leadership and strength. The tiger is also known as the animal that repels all evil." https://www.newsdelivers.com/2022/02/01/the-year-of-the-water-tiger-is-expected-to-push-out-of-adversity/