Cchchchanges

Changes. Notice how difficult they become as we get older? I never was a big one on change. I kinda bloomed where I was planted. As I've become older, like so many others, I don't care too much for change. It's not as though anyone in charge asked me. It just seems to happen.

I've had so many big changes over the past years. Becoming a nurse was one I embraced. Becoming a wife was another. I embraced the hope of becoming a mom, but it wasn't on my life's path. More difficult changes....discovering I had MS. Discovering the MS caused seizures. That was a huge one. It made me so mad. How do you cope with changes that your body didn't check in and ask you about? Don't I get a say anymore? Apparently not. Learn to roll with it, as my nephew says. So I do.

More changes? Can't I get my head on straight between 'em? Having to leave community nursing due to seizures. That was disheartening. Becoming a nurse consultant and spreading my wings in a new way in nursing....it was a lovely time! And the honor of my first service dog~ Jet...who was flat-out amazing! How hard he worked to open my life back up, and by golly he did it! But more changes...

A dear friend dying alone and at home at her computer. Dead of a heart attack. forty-two. A nurse. That was a change that I didn't want to embrace. Couldn't. Her grieving family. The grieving co-workers. I've never seen so much grief, and not known how to help....how to say good-bye so soon. But I would learn. Life is a harsh teacher.

Two years later, nearly the same time of the year....good-bye again. Another change. Another cog in the wheel, a turn in the path. My Dad this time. We were such chums, such buddies. We could talk about and look at art for hours. I have so many of his carved duck decoys all around...My nephew Jamie came home one day and said “Aunt Lisa, NOW I know where all the decoys Grandpa carved went!” and laughed.

I just loved 'em. From the first to the last one he carved, I was fascinated with the progression in Dad's art. That's all I ever asked for: duck decoys. So he carved and carved. Got better at it and better. And our little house is full to exploding with them...with his love for me!

And he loved Jet. And Jet loved him. Immediate connection. When we went to visit in the outer banks, on the barrier island community Dad lived, Jet was such a celebrity! The locals love their 'huntin' dogs' and had never seen a full-fledged 'workin' dog'. They couldn't say enough about him. Jet preened with the attention, loved it and drank it to the very last drop!

I embraced beautiful changes there with Jet and my husband Bill. I wanted for so long to walk in the sand by the ocean with Bill, once again. Jet made that possible, four feet and a heart as big as all outdoors....walking by the ocean as I had dreamed I would once again.....learning that dreams can come true....and a best-boy buddy could bring that dream home! Amazement!

More changes....all brought about by my little yellow dog....with the greatest heart. Jet was able to predict a seizure twenty minutes before. I would take medicine, get to a safe place....and have no

seizure. He got so good at it, I was able to drive again, since I wasn't having seizures. He opened every door that I thought had slammed shut the day I learned I had MS, and the day I learned I had seizures from it.

But life doesn't leave things like that...unfortunately. I learned to say good-bye too soon. To the

closest thing I would ever have to my own child....my Jet. Waaaay too soon. He died in my arms from cancer. He wasn't even four years old.

Changes. They can hurt more than you think your old heart can bear.

How to go on? Jet and I were such buddies. Such a great team. How?

I write my blog “My Helper Wears A Fur Suit” to answer that question. When I started it, I wondered how I would go on as well. I had come to depend upon a service dog so much. People don't really “get it” about the bond....it's tighter than just “I've got your back, you've got mine.” It's deeper than 'he's my dog'. He's my friend, my helper, in my case, like my child....and that big beautiful change of a day....the day my successor dog picked me........such an honor, and such a different helper! Frax!

Frax is a dog with a truly unusual name. And unusual ways of helping me. He does the same 'jobs' Jet did, only with panache' that can only be attributed to Frax. Has he healed that horribly wounded heart? Read and follow, and see what you think. Http//lisa.vaught.wix.com@service-dog-blog.

Each service dog given by Canine Assistants is a gift to the recipient. A wonderful amazing, expensive gift ($20,000!) that none of the recipients could ever, ever dream of receiving! Each dog is a wonder, each person in the link of the people who form and make dreams come true for disabled people.....it's true what they say about 'passing on' the good from one individual to another~ it just grows and grows! And those are changes we can get our arms around!

So. It's my birthday. I want to celebrate the organization that made my dreams come true. If you want to celebrate as well, go to canineassistants.org. There are dozens of ways you can help. Your time, creativity, charity....support. Pass that love on, there's not enough of it going around today, pass it on in honor of a stout-hearted yellow dog who changed my life~one paw at a time...Jet....or his successor~ Frax!

Chchchchanges, as done by David Bowie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pl3vxEudif8#t=1

courtesy Chaine de pooxjean

#changes #birthday #helperdog