STEVIE THE DACHSHUND, SAVED BY THE FAITHFUL

Stevie [below right, with Noel] was a six-month-old dachshund puppy, the beloved companion of Ben and Owen. Walking with them in a park one afternoon she was hit by a bicycle, trapped in the spokes and then flung aside. Dazed and confused, she ran — into the path of a car. Her spine and the tiny, thread-like sacral nerves were badly damaged. There was an ethical dilemma whether or not to proceed with surgery at all, given the seriousness of the injuries. In the end, we went ahead. A few days after Stevie’s surgery, I needed to escape my own mind, so I attended a mindfulness evening held by a couple of friends of mine in a church. I crept into a pew but was soon invited to come up to the microphone. I spoke from the heart. I asked the congregation to close their eyes and imagine that they were blind, deaf and could not smell, sensing the world only through the fingers of their hands which I asked them to place on their knees as they sat. Then I asked them to imagine a long-haired dachshund puppy called Stevie.

In the silence, I asked them to feel her breathing and her heartbeat and then take a leap of faith with me and imagine drilling into her spinal canal, and feeling the guitar strings of her nerves, feeling carefully the difference in sensation between skin, muscle, sinew, bone and nerve.

I asked them to be grateful for life and love and asked them to focus on Stevie’s recovery. A few days later, Stevie began to stand up and I truly believe that their spiritual attention, bringing their passion to a single cause, actually did help to change the world.