"When one soul helps another to stretch, another soul grows taller and another grows free."

Larissa Kaye Batten (llbeara@aol.com) writes "Soul Food," a weekly column for SpiritSite.com.  

Larissa is a prolific writer whose work has been featured in several publications, and is the Director of Miracle Animal Rescue (site will open in a new window).

"I quit," I told myself. "This dream is over."

"Excuse me?" my conscience retorted. "You can’t quit. You promised to open a clinic to help end pet homelessness. Remember? This is your dream."

"Yes, it is my dream," I responded. "Yes, we need a low-cost spay and neuter clinic to help end pet overpopulation. And yes, this dream is OVER."

"Up to eight million pets are euthanized in U.S. shelters every year due to pet overpopulation," my conscience whimpered. "You promised to help save lives."

"Leave me alone," I whined. "I don’t need more anxiety."

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself," my conscience snapped. "The anxiety won’t kill you."

I had barely slept in a few nights, I reminded my conscience.

My conscience refused to surrender.

I am a nervous wreck, I said pitifully. I could not risk my entire spiritual, emotional, financial, and career life to open this clinic.

"Why not? What’s a little risk?" my conscience jabbed.

Grrrr. Growl. Roar. Arggggghhhh.

I couldn’t deny that the nation’s epidemic of pet overpopulation had already taken a tremendous toll in the region of South Carolina I now called home, but I felt frantic when I considered the responsibility of helping to find a solution.

How could I raise the money? I had no business sense. Where would I find the space? Rental properties were exorbitant. How would I organize anything or anyone? I couldn’t organize my own closet or budget.

My soul has a way of stretching even when fear is dying to restrict it.

Let’s go to yoga class, my soul suggested.

As I contorted my body in all sorts of odd and interesting directions in my yoga class, I became aware of my breathing and the stretching of my soul.

When my soul wakes and yawns each morning, it stretches itself as far as it can climb and grow into the day and the dreams that lie waiting.

"Great Spirit, you are my Comforter, my Friend, my Helper, my Advocate. "Be with me now," I prayed as I stretched my body. "I will open this spay and neuter clinic if you want me to, and I won’t if you don’t."

A peace transcended all else in me. Then a knowing. An awareness. An answer. A simple one. I had released the fear. I would open the spay and neuter clinic. I knew it as purely and simply as though I had known it all along.

Oftentimes, I have experienced the most anxiety and confusion before realizing my greatest dreams.

When a new dream has arrived in unfamiliar packaging, my ego has starved for the familiar. My ego would rather squeeze into too small shoes than allow my soul to grow into abundant, bigger shoes and dreams. My ego would prefer to restrict my blood flow and my soul flow.

My soul seeks and yearns to stretch and discover what is new, what is awesome, what is always higher and greater than where I began.

So often when God has given me gifts, I have given them back to Him. I have not even thanked Him.

Today, as I sit at my desk in Miracle Animal Rescue Spay & Neuter Clinic in the spacious, bright yellow space, I open my arms and soul to God’s gifts and thank Him by receiving them.

My intention to rent a small office space in April 2002 before finding the actual clinic fell so far short of God’s dreams.

"God doesn’t want what’s good for you," a friend said. "God wants what’s best for you."

In April, I found my entire clinic in a small newspaper advertisement – at less than 50% of what I had budgeted.

The neighboring offices are full of animal lovers who stop by each day to visit the dogs.

Reporters have flocked to get the scoop on the clinic – the first of its kind within a two-hour range.

I have nine dogs in foster care with a waiting list of others in need. I have a waiting list for low-income pet owners in need of spaying and neutering their animals.

"Those people will never listen to you," people have told me. "They don’t care about their animals."

The calls keep coming.

"How will I ever make a living?" I wondered.

The money is coming.

My soul smiles.

When I look into the eyes of a perfectly young, perfectly healthy, perfectly loveable dog that has a new lease on life, or when I look into the eyes of a litter of puppies that will be injected to death in minutes because an irresponsible pet owner neglected to spay and neuter his animals, my soul stretches just a little bit more.

There is a place for me. I have a purpose.

As a child, I wished I would grow as tall as my friends.

Today I am as tall as I allow my soul to stretch.

Recently, I helped a man remove his dog from a chain tied to a tree. On his new zip wire, the dog’s spirit ran free. With his new awareness of the gift he could give his dog, the man’s smile ran wide.

When one soul helps another to stretch, another soul grows taller and another grows free.

Amen.

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