Learning to communicate

About a year ago, one of my best friends from high school told me she was interested in learning to communicate with animals.  I encouraged her to explore it, as I believe we ALL have the ability and it's just a matter of learning to USE the ability.

Within a few weeks, she had picked up a few animal communication books and had been practicing a bit with her own animals.  She wasn't confident in her abilities yet, so when we got together for dinner, she peppered me with questions about how I communicate with animals, and how I learned to trust the information I was getting, etc.  We had a great conversation that night and it was fun for us to find yet another common interest after all these years.

Over the next month or so, I got frequent email updates from her about how her "communications" were going.  She was feeling more confident in her abilities, but still not ready to tell anyone that she could communicate with animals.

As time went on, she mentioned it less often, but we always have plenty of other things to talk about, so I didn't give it much thought.  She did tell me she had started volunteering at a horse sanctuary by her home up north and she was loving it.  Originally, she went because her daughter was interested in helping the horses, but within a matter of weeks, they decided it would be a mother/daughter effort, since they were both enjoying it so much.

A few months ago, she was in town and we were sitting at a coffee shop catching up when a black lab walked in with his guardian.  The dog made a bee-line for us and we were both more than happy to visit with him.  After we had both pet him and oohed and aahed over his silky black coat, he walked back over to my friend and put his head in her lap . . . and he stayed there . . . for at least 10 minutes.

His guardian really had to work hard to get him to walk away from my friend, but once they were gone, I asked her what was wrong, as she had a slightly uncomfortable look on her face.  She shook her head and said, "Nothing's wrong." So I said, "What did he say to you?" Her eyes got really wide and she admitted that she didn't know why he was so drawn to her, since I was the animal communicator and that it made her uncomfortable and she worried that it would bother me, etc.  I smiled at her and said, "We BOTH communicate with animals!"

Then I asked her again, "So, what did he say to you?" and she said that all she got was, "You can do it." but she wasn't sure what that meant and she didn't "listen" anymore because she was more focused on trying to figure out why he came to her and not me.  I told her that what I picked up from him was that he wanted her to trust her abilities to communicate, that there were animals who wanted her to listen to them.

Immediately, we both thought about the horses at the sanctuary, and I asked her if she had been trying to communicate with them.  She confessed that she hadn't, that she had put it out of her mind because she wasn't sure she could really do it.  I encouraged her to start trying again and she agreed that she would.

The next week, she called to tell me that she had been at the horse sanctuary and something compelled her to bring some water over to one of the horses . . . and when she did, he drank and drank and drank. She said, "I don't know how I knew but I knew he needed water," and I laughed and said, "It's because he told you!"

Since then, every time we talk, she excitedly shares stories with me about her communications with the horses, and she's never sounded happier.  It seems the sanctuary has become a sanctuary for her as well. We are both very grateful to the sweet black lab who inspired her to start trusting her abilities again . . . and my guess is, the horses are pretty grateful to the black lab as well.