Little Matilda joined our family in early April, following the sad loss of our beautiful Theo to lymphoma earlier in the year.  She needed us as much as we needed her - her previous Mum had developed some health issues and was no longer able to look after her, so we took Luna to meet Matilda and they were friends at first sight...

She is, as all puppies are, part little angel, part tiny demon... but as Carl Jung once wrote,  "The greater the contrast, the greater the potential. Great energy only comes from a correspondingly great tension of opposites." ​​

​Matilda certainly has great energy, as Luna can testify; they play crazy games of chase together - not caring whether they are in the garden, bedroom or sitting room, and then subside in a panting, happy heap.  Like Luna, and like Daisy before her, Matilda knows how to bring the joy...

​Matilda of course has no concept of self-judgement - she is fearless!  She doesn't worry that she is "not good enough" because she likes to roll in pigeon poo, or that she is a "bad person" because she cherishes secret fantasies of catching one of the voles who inhabit the garden wall... she doesn't wallow in guilt because she was sick on our duvet at 4am... she just is as she is, and accepts herself for who she is because she has no idea that there is any other way to be.  What liberation!  No wonder she is so joyful...

Self-acceptance is a key aspect in developing wellbeing and rediscovering our own joy.  To quote Carl Jung once again, "How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow?  I must have a dark side also if I am to be whole."  When we can accept all of ourselves - the light as well as the dark - then we are liberated from others' judgements of us; we realise that what others think of us is not about us at all - it is a reflection of their own thoughts and being.  

Matilda's Teaching:
It doesn't matter what others think of you - it is what you think of you that is the most important thing.  Become fearless and spread the joy!

It’s just over three weeks since little Luna joined us, and we can’t believe how easily she has just taken everything in her stride…  Nothing seems to faze her, and she is abundantly curious about each new experience.  “What excitement can I discover here?” seems to be her motto.

She’s deeply fascinated by the numerous bumblebees that frequent the clover flowers in the lawn; having briefly experimented with eating one, she’s now decided that’s possibly a bit too exciting and is contenting herself with sniffing them, and then chasing after them when they fly busily off to the next flower…  The fat woodpigeons who sit, apparently in deep contemplation, on the lawn are also good fun to chase – flapping heavily away at the last minute, only to perch on the wall and look down at her in high dudgeon at being so rudely awakened from their meditative trance.

An early exploration of the pond has fortunately not been repeated – no doubt to the collective relief of the newt population – but everything within the garden and without has been subject to her close sensory scrutiny.  The paths and lanes we walk must smell astonishing to her; from her previous life in the suburbs of a city she is now surrounded by the sights and smells of horse and sheep, pheasant and partridge, hare, rabbit and deer…

And yet… every new experience is treated as a joyful discovery, enthusiastically widening her previous comfort zone of familiarity.
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Luna’s Teachings:

• Try everything once, and take feedback on board; it’s not a good idea to eat bees, and water lilies do not bear the weight of a Lhasa Apso.
• Enthusiasm is contagious.
• If outside the comfort zone is where the magic happens, then stepping outside your comfort zone on a frequent and ongoing basis is a recipe for adventure.
• Miracles are all around you, if you only pay sufficient attention.

Daisy is our youngest member of staff. At just turned two, she is endearingly barmy, with a lightness of foot that always brings to mind a floating dandelion seed. Sometimes, when she is running, she will make a flying leap into the air, seemingly for no other reason than sheer joy of living.

I had to take her to the vet’s on Wednesday for her annual injection; a procedure to which she took grave exception, nobly demonstrated when she was volubly sick all over the consulting table. I expected that when we arrived home she would be a bit quiet, but no – apart from a tendency to demand more cuddles, she was her own, tiny dancing self again.
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Daisy’s teachings:

• Live in the moment.
• Dance whenever you have the opportunity.
• Forgive all and bear no grudges.
• When you feel like you want a cuddle – ask.