Author: Jeff Shapiro

It’s a big world out there…
Especially for a little pup…
It’s a big world right here too…
Come, follow! There’s a whole universe inside me.

Today, I’m going to walk right inside my favorite picture…
Dance among the vineyards…
Munch on the grapes until my face is purple and gooey…
Throw my paws up to the sky to celebrate the harvest.

Ah! A much welcome tray of refreshments…
A teapot, cups, saucers, and a plate full of biscuits…
The billowy field will serve as my pillow and comforter…
The rosy sky will give the ambiance.

One pleasant blessing hinged to another…
Not at all like humans, who are always dodging slings and arrows…
But for both humans and pups, life is so formidable at a distance, so easy up close…
Don’t you think that the ghosts in our heads are really cowards?

I find all this adventure right here and right now…
My heart rinsed clean with only shame left within (I ate my butler’s catfish bait…)
Yet inside I have the strength to defeat it…
I’ll just give it back to him (it wasn’t settling very well anyway.)

I love you,

Annie

I think there should be a recall on the color gray…
Within it are a lifetime of unused tears…
That side path that spins the same five records…
Steps into nowhere.

I would prefer only jolly colors…
Like the round yellow heart of a daisy…
The high, cool, green pastures…
The earth’s easel splashed with purples, reds and blues.

These colors I have tasted…
A merry land in a merry world…
We will go exploring together…
And watch as your burden lightens.

We are in the image of our creator, but no two of us are alike…
Oh, what glorious colors!
We’ve been given this wonderful playground of colors…
Time to play!

So, wear the stars you have been given like a crown…
Laugh, anytime any where…
You should always be joyfully independent…
Far from the color gray.

I love you,

Annie

Hey Charlie! (Charlie is the big blue Heron by my home in San Diego…)
Charlie was dangling over a soup bowl of minnows…
I can always find Charlie; he Just hangs out in the same place everyday.

Hey Annie, your turn to start the conversation or is it mine?
Let’s see today it is Tuesday, so it’s yours.

You know Annie, I’m fascinated with humans…
They all seem to like me…
Most with cameras or brushes in their hands…
But those with scowls are like aliens from another world.

I’m so confused by all their yelling…
Confused by their pushing about…
Confused by their lack of self-awareness…
Confused by their anger.

He continued:

It’s time for those humans to go shopping in our favorite store…
Where, hope is still in stock…
Love is on aisle seven…
Forgiveness on aisle ten.

Yeah, I answered:

Those folks need to give all of their problems a different name…
And recognize them as we do as Angels…
I guess we are just going to have remind them everyday of how beautiful they are.

You ready Charlie…
Yep!
You ready Annie…
Yep!

I love you,

Annie and Charlie

My happiness is simple and easy to follow…
It involves a lot of kissing …
For example, each morning I kiss this earth…
And wait for Her to kiss me back.

It works the same with most everything…
The fields, the ocean, the sky…
They are all just waiting for their daily kiss…
And I’m telling you for sure, they will kiss you back.

It’s like being given a thousand warm biscuits straight from Mother earth’s heart…
Together with a promise of care, comfort and protection…
Love is the nature of things…
So, pucker up!

You may not fell like kissing…
Your path full of puddles and mud…
A shadow following from morning to night.
My answer to you, “kiss the shadow!”

You are an expression of creation…
This earth belongs to you…
Pucker those lips, loosen that tongue…
And kiss, kiss, kiss!

I would also like a kiss!

I love you,

Annie

I have a gift for you…
It is something that you’ve always wanted…
Close your eyes and take a long warm breath…
I’m giving you the sky.

Every thought-out color…
And all its creatures…
Step out this door and see for yourself…
I’ll be waiting on the other side.

Vast and oversatisfying…
My dimples hurt from smiling…
It’s all just one golden cake…
Nibbled and tasted and pronounced delicious.

The showers of birds greeting you…
As She levels the earth with Her stare…
Doesn’t it make you wonder…
How you can be one with so much beauty.

A photograph is not enough…
The layers placed one on top of the other…
The candles for this new day lit only for you…
Now, make a wish!

I love you,

Annie

Did you know that….

All the magic in this world is you…
You being a patchwork of it all…
You have the ability to make it a land of youth…
Or a land of disappointment.

But you need to be reminded, to….

Detach yourself from this world’s see-saw…
And remember that you are alive…
Graceful and picturesque…
Just like your creator.

Are you feeling your magic? If no….

Run away from self-judgment…
Take the jury in your mind back to the beginning…
Overcome all objections…
You will soon forget all that ridiculousness.

You don’t need magic tricks!

Did you know that each moment has two sides?
One side bursting with life and growth…
One festering on implications…
Coin flip, unnecessary.

You really don’t have to do anything, you’re magical just the way you are…

Until we met, I have never known magic like you…
Compassion, kindness, love all in a bundle…
It’s all those strong currents in your mind that make you forget…
That all you have to do is be you.

I love you,

Annie

Tell me of the marvelous…
Life is not some fallow field…
Or deep-bottomed clouds…
It is cool green grass sprinkled with buttercups.

Tell me of the heights you are capable of climbing…
And then what lay just a little higher…
Speak with a song and not a snarl…
Place the wind back into my sails.

Tell me of your many wonderful views…
You know, the ones flecked by sunbeams of the rising sun…
The grand sweep of your seas…
Too and fro, backwards, and forwards.

But I think you have forgotten how…

Instead, you tell of a grand roaring storm…
Your fears that rest in the shady depths…
With the longest, strangest looks…
Like a conductor abandoning the search for the next measure.

Don’t you see that you are made of the material of the heavens?
Capable of always having a view of Spring…
Pick yourself up and see that this is a dream and not a nightmare…
Your story has a very happy ending.

I love you,

Annie

Come, don’t be shy…
You are neither too short nor too tall…
This is your chance…
In your eyes I can see what you are trying to hide.

I know that your heart is deeper than the sea…
Surfacing only now and then…
I know that you have been pounded in every direction…
I’m just asking for a mindless refrain.

I will make everything softer…
In reality, there is not much in you that needs to be saved…
You are much more than you think…
A helluva lot more!

Can you feel your creator’s essence?
Changing all your water into wine?
Touched with crimson…
As gentle as your first kiss.

Move your vision a little to the left…
Ahead there is your future…
It is not as you think, “heavy as hell…”
It is a place where the water is calm.

I love you,

Annie

Today I’m going where the fishes are fed…
Roaring full throttle towards the sea…
The ocean has so much more to say to me…
Lying just beyond my outstretched arms.

Her voice seems to come from all directions at once…
One glance can flip my heart…
The tides marching in and out…
Making the hard pieces of my heart ripen.

The ocean is life giving…
Turning itself to every angle of the sun…
Feeding on the drenching sunbeams…
The queen of my earth.

And with it comes wonder…
Her surface covered with whites and blues…
Beneath an orchestra of life and civilization…
Like a thousand-star hotel.

To this kind of thing, I center my thoughts and so should you…
The sun is down now, the wind blowing the flame from Her match…
The stars are now singing a lullaby to us all…
I lay down and go to sleep.

Just another day in the life of a pup.

I love you,

Annie

I fall in love every day because there is so much to fall in love with…
Like the gentle rain filling every fountain…
The shadows of the oak trees spilling across the park…
The rosy colors dancing on the evening’s horizon.

It makes no difference if my eyes are open or shut…
The wind is always there for me to lean on…
My hopes and dreams are all in vibrant colors…
Stretching like headlights before me.

Maybe I have it all wrong, but I don’t think so…
My disposition makes everything brilliant and shiny…
I can be, always, perfectly myself…
And see myself as one of my creator’s precious jewels.

So, come join me…
Suck up your sadness!
Stop looking for the missing teeth in every smile…
And stop feeling like a bird perched in the wrong tree.

Leave that mess behind, and emerge from the brambles…
See that what you pass over every day that you think is artless, is truly art…
Greet each moment with butterfly kisses…
And fall in love with it all once again.

I love you,

Annie