About DogKisses’s Blog

DogKisses

DogKisses’s blog is a personal life, health and story blog. 

Most of my early posts were written during the aftermath of a short-lived, yet extremely difficult relationship.  Writing through the experience helped me to heal as much as anything did.  I discovered a few very good writers on the subject of narcissism, which gave me insight about the behavior and actions of the person I had been in a relationship with and finally, helped me find the freedom of letting it all go.

Writing helps me understand myself and life.  It’s therapeutic and gets creative juices flowing.

I absolutely with all my heart LOVE dogs!

Ruthie girl

My dear little tender heart, Ruthie Mae, was kissed by an angel named Free and that’s how she came to us.  Free had to leave this earth, and soon afterward, I discovered Ruthie at the local shelter.  She helped mend my sad heart and we’ve been together every day since.  Six short years!

Ruthie will sometimes give me a sweet little kiss on my arm when I reach into her food bag.  She thinks this action will get her an extra morsel, which it usually does. 

The gifts of sweet kisses from my four-legged family are what I was thinking about when I named this blog.  I imagined each one like snowflakes or drops of heaven floating around.

We have another four-legged in our family, Tiny Boy, who is just as sweet as Ruthie, even though he’s a big strong boy.  He’s the cute guy with the big loving hound-dog eyes.  Tiny is the elder in our family.

Tiny Boy

Once in a while, Tiny gives a little kiss too, but he’s quick about it, as if to hurry so that little Ruthie won’t see his tender soft side. 

My dogs are family, as well as medical companion animals.   I’ve always loved dogs, but having lived with chronic illness for many years, I have a deeper appreciation of the unconditional love and companionship dogs offer us humans.

Dogs help with my mental and emotional stability.  Caring for them gives me a sense of accomplishment, like when I take them for walks or give them a big bone to chew. 

The loyal spirit of a dog is an antidote for many conditions of the mind, body and spirit.  Dogs are good medicine. 

I write about several subjects in this blog.  I have a grown son who has also had to face chronic health challenges.  He was diagnosed with a ‘mental illness’ when he was nineteen.  We spent about ten years navigating America’s broken mental healthcare system.

My son has never fully taken to accepting psychiatric diagnoses, nor to the medications used to treat them, which for years, was said to be, “a lack of insight.”  That’s psychiatry-talk and it leads to treating those who ‘lack’ this insight, without proper human and civil rights.

Things have changed, such as my view of what is best in approaching mental health and wellness, the latter of which psychiatry doesn’t offer, at least not for some people.  I’ve decided that there is a lot I can learn from my son and too, he needs and deserves to be heard.

I’ve come full circle in life.  We are returning to a holistic approach to healthcare.  My son is doing well as I write.

We both continue to see an MD if necessary and have access to a wonderful and open-minded Neuro-Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, but for mental health, we mostly use methods outside of conventional psychiatry.

We work closely with a Taoist Alchemist who practices several modalities of holistic treatment, including but not limited to, whole organic food, supplements and herbs, as well as talk-therapy and psycho-education.  See my post titled, One Beet a Day.  (Links are at the bottom of this page).

Most recently, we began volunteering in a Horticulture Therapy group.  This has been quite rewarding for the both of us.  We really love it!

I’m documenting our journey in my posts tagged, ‘Green Healing’ and have also started a new photo-journal blog, Green Healing Notes, where I share our holistic and horticultural healing happenings.

Green Healing Notes

I’m your blogger, Michelle.  Thanks for visiting!

Posts you may like from Dogkisses’s blog:

• Pain in fibromyalgia (Ouch!)
• Mental Illness, It could be you
• Homeless with Dog  (One of my favorite posts)
  
• Green Healing ~ Heart and Soul (A Green Healing Day)
• One Beet a Day (Meeting the Alchemist)

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