Trust, Love, Faith and Limits

His fingers dug into Rin’s fur.

His fingers were thin and frail, but as they reached for Rin, reached for Rin’s furry shoulders, those fingers seemed to suddenly be possessed of an almost supernatural life, a strength …a desire; to connect… with Rin. Rin stood still in that moment, strong and steadfast with all four paws flat on the cold marble floor; he seemed to sense that this person with whom he was interacting needed his strength, his steadiness…his peace, his calm. At the same time, I believe this person was reaching for Rin’s energy…Rin’s quiet power, and confidence; his warmth, his body and his soft, deep fur. The man’s fingers curled into Rin’s fur and looked to me like a fist without fury…a fist paused in a moment shared with a dog. This man, who’d previously been curled in a wheelchair, had slid out of the chair and onto the floor in order to reach for Rin…a dog he so wanted to spend a moment with, that he defied his minders and found his way to his knees to reach for Rin. He somehow knew that he could trust Rin, a dog he’d never seen; and that’s a faith that a lot of people – people without compromised bodies – are simply not capable of. To simply trust…

The man could barely speak… his speech was muffled and slurred, but he clearly had something to say. “Rin likes me!” he said to the floor. I had to lay almost on my belly to hear him, to see him, but there with Rin, who was standing firm as I wriggled under the two of them to try and understand what was happening between them. And in that moment, something extraordinary happened; the 25 or more people who'd surrounded us a moment before, just fell away. The world, for a breathless moment, became the nameless man, Rin and me. In that moment, there was no human constraints of competition and judgement, no goals for a higher grade, no schemes for a promotion, no materialistic dreams, no new house, new car, new shoes or bag. There was only love, there was acceptance, there was excitement, there was sorrow, and joy all at the same time, it felt like love. There, in that moment on the cold marble floor, were all the ‘big emotions’ that scholars love to write about. There they were, those emotions, right there in front of me, a gift in a butterfly-wing moment for me to witness.

The man put his forehead to Rin’s forehead, and Rin stayed there. Somehow knowing that he needed to be a prop for this man, or he would quite literally fall. Rin stayed, and finally tilted his head to smell the man’s beard and cheek, which brought a wide smile to the man’s face. The man’s smile made me smile, and as quickly as that - it was like the spell was broken…as if my facial muscles had disturbed the waters between the man and Rin. Suddenly, the room and all its occupants came rushing back to me; and Rin, turned suddenly to focus on a tissue that had been dropped on the floor. Even special moments have their limits.

Trust…love…faith and limits. These are the lessons only a dog can teach us…