Life Lessons I Learned From My DoG Bowen, Laurie Lynn

Animals are God’s gift to us and they help us in immeasurable ways, teaching us lessons, if we will only pay attention and hear what the spirit is saying. I had a dog for only 5 years but they were the best years of my life. When she died on Feb. 28, 2010, it was the beginning of a year of many losses. I spent 2010 grieving 3 more times as one by one, the mother figures of my life went to heaven. Kodi came into my life at the exact time that I needed her and she changed me in ways that are often difficult to explain. This book is my way of honouring her spirit, which I believe, is waiting for me, in Heaven. She taught me things Be Excited When Your Loved One Comes Home, Learn to Love Unconditionally, Be Generous, Stand up For Yourself, all chapters from my book and also from my life. It is an autobiography of a ministers daughter who lost her mother to a tragic accident as an infant. She has raised by a step-mother who wasn’t able to love and nuture her. She only knew perfectionist and punishment. She hadn’t experienced grace yet. She survived all kinds of childhood abuse, including sexual abuse by her alcoholic, Scottish, grandfather, all the while, she was wearing white gloves and white paten shoes to church every Sunday, pretending that life at home was wonderful, when it was anything but. It was a very hypocritical life-style. My dad was a wonderful preacher and where I undoubtedly inherited the gift of a preacher with the heart of compassion and love mixed in, I am more like my dad than I ever realized. My faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is unshakeable and I am born again and spirit filled and I have lived a life of sadness, tragedy and deep emotional pain. Despite the broken relationships, and breaches of trust, bouts of depression and history of domestic violence and early childhood trauma, I am strong and joyful. The Lord has brought me through it all to the other side, where I now try to share my story in my workshops and my writing, in an attempt to help people to relate to emotional issues and how a pet can change everything and God changes all things.