Ok, so perhaps you are wondering why I’ve called these paintings, which I did a few years ago, dachshund goddesses? Clearly, they are tree goddesses.  

But it started shortly after when my mom saw the paintings I’d done that she asked if they each had a name. Huh. I’d not thought of that. And so I let it simmer. And simmer it did for all this time.

The paintings are in our lower level where I see them every day when I work out on my pilates machine. And just like that, one day it hit me what their names are!

So perhaps no surprise for those that have been here following my writing and blog for some time, and you’ve likely already guessed…but yes, each is named after my special needs dachshunds that graced my life — Frankie, Joie, and Gidget.

And this is when I sat with each of the paintings, especially drawn to the center of each of them. Who was who, I wondered?

It then occurred to me looking at the center of each goddess the color at each center near the heart, each dachshund has helped me heal some aspect of myself. This is when I thought of the Chakras – energy systems within our body – and knew immediately that the goddess with the red center is Gidget.

After looking up the other meanings of the colors representing the Chakra’s I realized that the orange was Joie and the blue, Frankie.

Blue represents the throat chakra and its emotional attributes are about communication, creativity, and healing. Frankie, being my first special needs dachshund opened a world to me of writing two children’s books and a memoir about the journey we took together with her in a wheelchair, sharing her message with many. It was never on my radar to write children’s books, and even more so to think I’d become a public speaker. The girl that was so shy all those years pushed herself out into the world sharing a message that she became passionate about.

Orange represents the sacral chakra and its emotional attributes are intimacy, emotions, boundaries, addiction, and trust. When Joie passed away just ten months after I adopted her, I just didn’t understand why she had to leave so soon. But it was a time of me learning to appreciate transitional times in one’s life, to be with the fact that I knew I wanted to slow down and go in a new direction in my life, but uncertain of what that was. It was also a time of trusting the universe would provide a new path and setting boundaries for myself to learn to just be and allow what was to unfold.

Red represents the root chakra and its emotional attributes are security, grounding, sexuality, and survival. As I shared in my latest memoir Gidget guided me to finally look at a vision of a childhood wound I’d carried with me for most of my life of being touched inappropriately as a child. This led me down the path of healing so many aspects of myself from learning to trust my intuition, that I was safe, and that I was worthy.

Realizing each goddess was one of my dachshund friends, my mom suggested writing their name somewhere on each painting. Today is the day I did just that and oh, how it has made my heart smile.

Our animal friends are always with us. What a blessing and treasured gift.

xo,

Barbara