A Dog Is a Dog

A Dog is a Dog.A Cat is a Cat.A Tree is a Tree.And a Stone is a Stone.

The trouble begins when we start seeingsomeone else in them.

We see our beloved in a dog—and now its loyalty can make us cry.

We see our partner in a cat—and suddenly its absence can feel like betrayal.

We see memories in a tree—and cutting it down feels like losing a part of ourselves.

We see God in a stone—and suddenly, the stone is no longer just a stone.

Perhaps things themselves never changed.

Only what we saw in them changed.

And maybe that is the source of bothour greatest miseryand our greatest devotion.

The world is full of dogs, cats, trees and stones.

But the human mind is never satisfied seeing things as they are.

It keeps turning them intolovers, enemies, memories, gods, hopes and fears.

And then—

we spend our lives suffering, loving, worshipping and fightingwith what was never really there.