Change comes from dedicated, ordinary people, in the trenches, serving a cause greater than self.

Many people who live with animals have noticed that their cat or dog becomes solicitous of them when they are feeling unwell. A cat who is normally aloof may come sit in the sick person’s...

We all came into this world wired to connect with all life.

The fewer plants and animals we are able to recognize as individuals—recognize well enough to name—the more alienated we have come to feel from ourselves, the Earth and God, the Source.

I believe the happiness we feel in relation to animals is immensely significant. I believe it is absolutely central to our physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being.

When you have succeeded in letting go of a trivial preoccupation or two, your awareness will begin to expand into the deeper sources of stress in your life, the bigger uncontrollable things that you have...

Animals in children’s literature always have a soul life because children perceive animals as having souls.

The belief that every living thing has an individual soul is called animism. (Anima, which means ‘soul,’ is also the root of the word ‘animal.’) Anthropologists have found this belief to be universal in children,...

It is my understanding from an intuitive relationship with animals that it is complete folly to try to figure out what is right or wrong for humans by observing what other animals are doing. Observe...

The animals feel that this urgency is mutual. Their own suffering has made them aware of human suffering. More frequent contact with us has sensitized them to what troubles us. They feel our anxiety and...

I believe we have this idea that bad things ought to be prevented from happening.

To be sure, there are human abilities that other animals lack, but the more we learn about animals, the more abilities we discover that humans lack. Obviously, if animals were included in the Olympics, humans...

Animals remind us that all beings who walk, stand, swim, crawl, or fly are radiant, mysterious, and unique expressions of the Source. Every species, every culture, has it’s own genius.

Because we tend to equate intelligence with language–particularly the ability to use language to think and communicate abstractions–it is natural to conclude that animals are, on the whole, a lot less intelligent than we are.

real.” That is, when we imagine things, we are just making them up. In the spiritual life, though, there are some realities that cannot manifest unless we begin by imagining them.

Great teachers often come to us in humble packaging. That little dog held the wisdom of a sage in his heart. I learned from him that healing is not about the success or failure of...

The inner encounters I have with animals—and will be teaching you to have— are exchanges of meaning.

I take it hard when an animal in my care suffers or dies. I take it even harder when the animal’s suffering is the result of human exploitation or carelessness.

Grieving the loss of a loved one—whether human or animal—is not only permissible, it is essential.

Has it ever struck you as odd that humans are the only creatures on the planet who wear clothes? Everything else, from aardvarks to zebras, is running around in its birthday suit, blissfully unclear of...

The fact that we are eternal spiritual beings doesn’t detract from the importance of our temporary physical existence. On the contrary, it makes that existence all the more precious and remarkable.

It is commonplace, and true, to point out that animals are happier than people because they live entirely in the present.

Every species embodies a solution to some environmental challenge, and some of these solutions are breathtaking in their elegance.

Animals suffer both emotionally and physically, but they don’t suffer metaphysically. That is, they don’t suffer about suffering, don’t get thrown into spiritual confusion by it, or fall out of connection with the divine because...

Animals don’t know exactly what will happen when they die any more than we do. In the absence of specific knowledge, they simply trust. They trust death the way they trust life: as participation in...