TABLE OF CONTENTS

 DELPHI: What Being on Earth Is All About

EXCERPT

Preface

I thought it would be a good idea to get a second golden retriever to keep my first one, Cindy, company. That's when I saw an ad for a golden retriever rescue shelter. And they, in turn, referred me to the Lochvier Kennels at Midland, Virginia. At the time, I was not far from the kennel, maybe forty-five minutes or so. And yes, there was a female golden available. Would I like to see her? Yes! And off I went, not realizing of course that I was entering a whole new world, the bright and glorious world of Delphi.

I didn't pick Delphi, she picked me. She had been a show dog but that type of life was not for her. At a year and a half she was more than ready to do something else. The only trouble was she had to find a way to let me know what that "something" was and how much I was to be a part of it.

It had never occurred to me that animals and people were not all part of one family. I grew up with my springer spaniel, Freckles, beside me. A bantam chicken by the name of Snookie always had morning coffee with my mother. Well, Snookie sipped cream out of the coffee cup saucer. She would hop right up on mother's bed and wait patiently for her cream to be served. What with cats and dogs, horses and ponies, lambs and sheep, chickens of all shapes and sizes, fancy pigeons, parakeets, turtles and rabbits, how was I to know that humans were supposed to be different from animals? I didn't!

Oh, I did not start right off hearing animals talk -- at least I don't think so. If there was any kind of language between us to begin with, I suppose it was the language of love and high regard for one another. We were friends.

Lately I have been aware of a sacred, silent language between child and animal. I have watched small children visiting Delphi and her brother Chipper. The loudest and most boisterous child can sit with Delphi or walk beside Chipper without a word being spoken -- yet they are speaking words, I know. Words that I cannot hear nor understand. Watching them as they communicate without sound, I am struck by a world many adults have eliminated from their consciousness. It is a world of movement, of dancing secret codes that only the childlike mind and pure animal heart can understand. This book is really dedicated to that world and to all of us -- young and old -- finding it.

When people ask me how to communicate with animals, I say, "I open my heart wide and express love and respect to them. Then I hear them." This was not a slow process for me. It was sudden. And it can be sudden for you, too, if you open your heart as I have done. All life is in communication. It is just that humans have isolated themselves from "the web of life."

To be in Delphi's presence is to be constantly amazed at her intelligence, her gift of wisdom, her command of energy. As far as I know, she has never been exposed to the Navajo People; yet she sings us back into the Beauty Way, an experience that is awesome to any and all who are fortunate to take this path with her.

Delphi reaches out to all of us in a partnership of animals and people. She tells us that we can heal our earth and ourselves by remembering our connection with one another. Many books have been written about self-growth, self-actualization, and even self-self! Delphi says that is not the point at all. We've missed it entirely! She says, "We're all about love and how we can work together as partners. It is through the heart," Delphi says, "that we can join with all life in the coming of a bright new world."

Delphi and I share in this book a portion of the animal communication classes we convened in Tucson, Arizona. The events and Delphi's words are accurate. Only the names of the students attending the classes have been changed. I believe that these classes illustrate that when humans and animals become partners, miracles can happen and they do.

I feel blessed to offer this book to you and I know Delphi is joyous that you are reading it.

Patricia Jepsen

P.S. Delphi is pronounced DEL-PHEEE.