Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Ask Amber Donkey - April 2009

Editor’s Note: Ask Amber was a page on our website where Amber Donkey would answer a couple of questions a month. We are moving this monthly feature to this blog now instead, giving others a chance to comment on topics. Normally, we will choose about 2 questions per month. Seeing that Dawn was out of commission with a surgery and recovery for several months, this column has not been updated since August 2008. For this month, we have chosen 4 questions to make up for lost time. Plus, Amber seemed to have a lot to say after a long hard winter! To submit questions for consideration, please send them in an email to Dawn@springfarmcares.org .


1. Dear Amber,
One of our dear cats passed on a few months ago; we were extremely close to him. We still had four cats, but the house just didn't feel right. We realized that no one could ever fill our dear one's pawprints, but we can care for five kitties quite easily and so many are homeless, so last week we adopted another cat. In the past, even though I always take great care with introductions, it has always taken quite a while for the household to adjust to a newcomer. This time it's like magic: the new little girl has been accepted wholeheartedly from the very first, and acts completely at ease—as if she's always lived with us. At first I thought she might actually "be" our lost cat, but I don't really think so. I'm wondering if perhaps he sent her to us. Have you ever known passed-on animals to do that sweet favor for their families?

Amber: It is sweet to feel the gifts from old friends isn’t it? Yes, we have seen that here at the farm a lot too. Frequently our ghost brigade of horses will send someone our way who they just know we would love to have with us. Many times your beloved animal friends who pass into spirit want to be sure you are taken care of send in help. It is a loving gesture and a special gift to receive.


2. Dear Amber,
Please help me with this. I've read your responses on different issues regarding abuse, neglect, etc. How can I forgive and send love to the people in Korea that skin dogs alive and torture them for food. How do I send someone forgiveness regarding a hog farm in Iowa where little piglets were thrown against the wall and the mother pigs were tortured to no end and on and on. Animals are so helpless, they depend on us to take care of them.

I just cannot feel good about this, let alone send love to these people or any person that tortures animals or other humans. I can't get myself to send love and forgiveness to someone that does such a horrific act. I think it's about time not to make excuses for humans anymore. I feel it's about time that people take responsibility for their actions. They have to know that this is so wrong what they are doing.

My other question is: Why do these poor animals keep reincarnating to these horrible conditions? Why would they choose this?

Amber: This is not a simple question and one that I could take an entire book to answer and still not completely fulfill all the questions that people have on this topic. The answer is complexly simple. It is because it is literally a circle. I am not suggesting that anyone feel good about this sort of abuse, neglect, or torture. And that is what it is in many cases – torture. There is a difference in intent when an animal is maltreated out of ignorance and when it is thought and planned out in advance, or for when ignorance is replaced by knowing it is inappropriate, but continuing to do it anyway. The intention of the human is completely what drives the answer to this question.

But I ask you to look at the circle of repercussion that comes from judging others in general. You see, I’m not saying you should go out and love the people who do heinous acts against anyone. But what I am saying is that if those people had felt loved in the first place, they’d have found a place inside of themselves that would have never allowed for the torture and mistreatment of any other living being. A cycle of judgment just keeps moving round and round and round. If humans could understand truly loving who they are, loving one another for who you are, and judging nothing, then there would literally be no abuse. Judgment perpetuates judgment perpetuates self-doubt, perpetuates lack of self-worth, perpetuates dominance over something lesser than you feel, perpetuates abuse, which then comes back to being judged and finding the exact validation that you started with. It’s a big wheel. Somewhere this wheel needs to stop turning. Somewhere it needs to stop perpetuating violence and hatred and judgment. Somewhere every being needs to understand the love that they are and the love that exists in every thing around them. Can’t happen you say? That’s what we hear all the time. Until enough of you think it can, it won’t. Its time to stop making excuses for why this can’t be so. It is the way of all nature to be loving and forgiving. Anything else has been created by man.

The last part of your question about why an animal would choose to come back in to horrible conditions such as these is one that I cannot really answer. The reason is that the choices that each soul makes is solely dependant on what it is choosing to experience, or learn, or teach. To an onlooker, many times these choices do not make sense. In our physical experience, we cannot always make sense of soul choices because we cannot put them into the overall framework and experience at the level of the soul.


3. Dear Amber,
I wonder how you and the other animals respond to Allergies. Both my husband and I are allergic to cats; yet we live with 6 of them (the allergist says we have developed immunity to ours). I have a hard time understanding how people dump or get rid of animals (cats, dogs, gerbils, rabbits, etc.) because they say they are allergic. I understand the severity of allergies and asthma and have had trips to the hospital to help me breathe. But I won’t give up on the love I share with my feline companions. I am also allergic to trees, grass, pretty much everything outside, and I refuse to live in a bubble, but rather work on why I have these allergies and how I can overcome them.

But can you and the other animals help me with my feelings towards others who say they are allergic? How does a cat feel who is dumped because their ‘family’ is now allergic? Does the cat understand?

And how can I answer other humans when I know they are using the ‘allergy’ as an excuse really not share love and not to open their hearts?

Amber: Not everyone is ready to open their hearts as you have. Again, we cannot judge others for the choices they are making. We have many cats here at the farm who have come because their people are allergic. Many of them are devastated at first, but some of them view it as a means of moving on to their next thing in life. Imagine if animals would be allergic to humans! And whose to say we are not? Each situation is unique to each human and each animal involved. I cannot answer this question other than in general terms because of that. Achoo!


4. Hi Amber,
It is my understanding that we are all spiritual beings and that each of us comes here for a specific purpose. Whether it is to experience something, learn or share something or to help others and so on.

What I want to know is even though we may not know what our purpose is, when we have fulfilled it what happens? Do we spend the rest of the time in our physical bodies on a ‘spiritual vacation’ or do we leave soon afterwards?

Amber: Whatever you wish.

Editors Note: I asked Amber if she wished to elaborate on her answer at all. She replied, “what more can I possibly elaborate on? There is nothing more to say. Those three words precisely answer the question in a most profound way!”