The Art in Animals
By Joseph Hobbs
The Cinnamon Trust Volunteer, Zoe Temple “The joy and happiness he brings me can't be described. He gives me a reason to take a break from life and remember what's important, rest, live in the moment, get some fresh air - all while in the company of a little fluffy creature who adores me back! …”
Teha and Mirrie (Mother and Daughter) with Volunteer Teo Dani for The Cinnamon Trust who provide support for the elderly and terminally ill who need help with their pets.
The Cinnamon Trust - Golden Retriever, Volunteer Walker Teo Dani
I wanted to write this time about another source of art, one that we see all around us. Just as there are monuments we have built, pieces of beauty present as objects or concepts that cover the Earth like a shell; there is also an abundance of living life.
The Cinnamon Trust - Charlie & Snowy with Volunteer Jo
Any pet owner can see this pretty quickly every day, pets are the tip of a wonderful iceberg. Dogs for example, how wonderful they are. Running, playful creatures that we see smiling at us, dashing beyond our capability for speed. They streak across the same ground as us, some of them noble and dignified. Others are just so silly that there are billions of images and funny videos just of them living, just being as they are. I’ve used dogs as an example. But this applies to cats, birds, chickens, snakes, hamsters, bunnies, we haven’t even started on the non-domesticated animals. They are all artful things living skilled lives. I find watching them is a good way to clean the slate, if I’m caught in a spiral.
Look at the sky for a few moments and you will see a bird. Look at the streets, maybe there’s a cat prowling around, a dog smiling and trotting along for his walk. Scoop up one patch of soil and you see the ground teeming with life. Living life, working and functioning and complicated.
The Cinnamon Trust Volunteer, Zoe Temple “He can then go home to his owners who are so grateful to be able to keep their companion and feel safe in the knowledge he is still exercised as he should be.”
However it came to be, it simply is. If you take a few moments just to look out your front window, or a few minutes for a walk outside it’s a freely accessible antidepressant. Breathing the same air, swimming through the same process of life are the thriving billions of species, untold trillions of life forms beside our own. It is scientifically proven that some of them even show off. They love being seek, the blackbird diving in front of your car. The seagull greedy for chips. The squirrel licking its paw and watching the world go by.
I find a great deal of comfort to be found in that. Whether it’s rushing about, or sated and sitting lazing around in the sun, in every wild animal, and all of the domesticated ones there’s this living, breathing beauty to each and every one of them.
We are part of a unified system, and by observing them there is an opportunity to be pulled into the artistic perspective. To enjoy the beauty of something, wonder about how it works, all of those feelings that I could spend a lifetime describing, but we just know looking at a dolphin bursting out of the water.
Zoe Temple “The Cinnamon Trust works on both sides. Walking dogs and/or finding short term and long term foster homes for pets of elderly or terminally ill owners, but also is a means for those that can't have a dog of their own, due to housing, finances or work etc, to have the opportunity to walk a dog (or several dogs).”
With Volunteer Teo Dani for The Cinnamon Trust
Animals are works of art, acting artfully. And this is something we can appreciate. It’s soothing to watch a badger sitting on his back, a hedgehog looking at you as he shuffles out of your way. Just look and see what is around you, in such fine detail, moving so fast.
I dare you to just try looking for life out there for a few minutes, and see if that life doesn’t make you feel a bit better about the world and your place within it.