We All Need a Safe Place

We all need a safe person or place to go when we need rest, acceptance or on the days we feel broken. For me, that person is Doc. At the end of a long day, no matter what we have encountered together, we have each other. Laying accross her lap, while she gently strokes my head, is the safest place I know. We don’t need words, because being together brings comfort.

Doc said that she learned a long time ago that sometimes, you really don’t need answers you just need silence and a safe place to land. You don’t have to fix everything right away, becuse some chapters in our lives are meant to be felt not fixed, so that we can learn the lesson. So it’s important to have people in our lives that just listen and let us figure things out.

Last Friday was the first time I acted as the safe place for a patient that was struggling. Now that I am getting older, I am starting to sense what the patient’s need. While the patient talked to Doc, I quietly laid by the patient’s feet and every once in a while she would lean down to pet me. It just goes to show you that comfort can come in many ways. After the session Doc told me how proud she was of me becuse it was the first time she saw my potential as a therapy dog.

It just goes to show you that true safety comes from persons and places where we don’t feel judged, but accepted, even if the thing accepting you is just a therapy puppy in training.