A Letter to Neale

Reader question:

Dear Neale... I am writing this email with a very heavy heart, and am sincerely hoping you will be able to give me some comfort. On Wednesday I had to put my little dog down - he was a beautiful toy poodle, and was part of the family. He was nearly 14, a good age for a poodle, but that does not make the grieving any easier. Has God a special place for animals, Neale? He created them and loves them. God is love - love is God. Surely they have a soul -- they have feelings, emotions and great intelligence. I realize how busy you are, but I pray you will find the time to send me an email.

Your loving friend, Mary C.

Neale Responds:

My Dear Mary....I am so very sorry to hear about your loss of your beloved little guy. I know from personal experience how big such a loss can be. I want to tell you that there is no question that pets have what we call souls. There is no question at all within me about that. The Soul is the animating energy of all of life, and is the Essential Essence of Life Itself. Your wonderful little friend is now experiencing the joy of Never Ending Life and, like human expressions, may choose to return to physicality --- perhaps even in your own life --- in a new form.

I am told that the reason that we form such close bonds with certain Souls (both human and animal) is that we have had such bonds before. I am instructed that over and over again, throughout the eons, we travel through Time and Space with the same set of Soul Companions on the eternal journey of Self Realization. We have Soul Companions, Soul Partners, and Soul Mates. These are three different levels of "connection" and manifest repeatedly in three identifiable ways.

You will find yourself immediately recognizing, and forming a bond with, a Soul Companion --- even if it is a fleeting bond, as with a bird or a butterfly that makes its presence known to you in a very obvious and seemingly intentioned way, as well as a lasting bond, as with a dog or a cat, or even an animal in the wild. You will also find yourself strangely and inexplicably drawn to certain human beings --- not in a romantic way, but in an obviously very personal way that often seems to have no basis in present-life reality, but feels very close and very comfortable nevertheless. These are your Soul Partners, and you will move through this life with them somehow playing an important role in it. I have Soul Partners who are or were particular authors, sports stars, famous political figures who I have never personally met, but with whom I nevertheless feel particularly close, and even protective. Soul Partners also show up in my life as close friends, immediate family, more distant relatives, and even strangers that, when we meet, I take into my heart at once, and for no observable or particular reason.

And then there are Soul Mates. I am living with my Soul Mate now, and it is the greatest blessing of my life, for I at last no longer feel SouLonely --- which is a very specific and particular and desolate feeling that you recognize when you have it, and feel blissfully relieved of when you don't. I am in bliss now with my Soul Mate, for I feel, quite literally, found at last; seen, finally, for who I really am; and loved, totally, as exactly that.

This is a gift that only heaven can bestow.

While it is not very "romantic" in the human sense to say it, I am instructed that we may encounter more than one Soul Mate --- and may actually share special moments with more than one Soul Mate --- in a lifetime. This has not happened to me. I have never had a relationship with a person who felt like my complete and total Other such as I have now, but I am told and taught that even this is possible within the amazing adventure of a human lifetime.

Conversely, not every person with whom we fall in love and form a romantic partnership with may be our Soul Mate. Because a person is not your Soul Mate does not mean you cannot fall in love with them and marry them or create a life partnership with them. But if you have had more than one intimate relationship in your life, and one was with a Soul Mate and one was not, you will know the difference immediately.

The same is true with pets. You can encounter a particular animal, and grow to a feeling of real fondness for that animal, but if you ever encounter an animal who is your Soul Companion, you know it at once, and the bond you form with that animal is irresistible, inexplicable, indefinable, and unbreakable.

You have such a bond with your little and wonderful poodle, and I can tell you that not only is he happy and joyful where he is now --- you will also see him again, when you, too, are home with God.

And, as I mentioned, you may be reunited with him again even before then, should he choose to physicalize once more in your life in another form. If this occurs, you will know it in the first moment of your meeting.

So nurture and embrace your sadness at his departure from your present physical life, but do not truly mourn, for he is filled with joy and wonder and happiness now, and your bond with him is eternal and everlasting. And know this, always: a beloved pet is God's Love...made visible, physical, and undeniable. That is why God created pets --- to let us know what heaven is really like.

May you experience God's blessings flowing to you and through you, both now and even forevermore.

Yours in humble service.....