Ten life lessons we can learn from animals

[Catherine]

This is a very good list of the things we should be learning from animals. Animals teach us about what are the important things in life.
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsand...m-animals/

I think I learned my most important lessons from my hamsters. I am serious. They have short lives so they have no time to waste, but they still have full and rewarding lives. For one thing, they are always happy go lucky. They take time for the wheel and time for sleep. They enjoy their food, what ever is there and each new day is a new adventure to be lived. Whether you have a year or 100 years it is all in how you live it.

[LPC]

What a great find that was, Catherine! I have bookmarked that page and will return to read it a second time later. I hadn't seen the research about dolphins having unique whistles as names (link in lesson 5); that was fascinating.

When you look at the list of ten life lessons, it is so instructive. We have a lot to learn from animals. Is our "civilisation" really so civilised? Of course, the world is now so overpopulated that it would be difficult to turn the clock back now and live totally in accord with nature, but we could at least try to learn some of those lessons....

[Tobi]

What a lovely and well-written article. Thanks for finding it Catherine.

They do indeed teach us many things; some of those things are truly remarkable and life-changing.
I think, if we can just go quiet for a moment, inside ourselves, we can 'hear' what they are saying.

Just because humans can do differential calculus, fly to the Moon, write books, and animals can't (and probably don't want to!) -doesn't make them less intelligent than ourselves. They can do things with ease that matter a lot, and we can find difficult.

And another thing is....they don't judge us the same way humans often do.

I regularly spend time with someone who likes to 'test my intelligence' by finding out how much I know about so-and-so....or if I'm fast enough to grasp their wit. And at the same time they do like to show me how much they know....
I laugh a little bit as I actually do know their heart happens to be in the right place, and it is all basically in good part, and they do quite like me....but can't figure me out. I'm dumb, and yet I'm bright.....
But....for Dog's sake! No animal would be the slightest bit interested in those mind games. And I feel more at home with those who aren't. Misty would have just yawned and begged for food..... (Hey! I might try that one! lol)
Yet it was she who showed me many remarkable secrets of the Universe.

[Catherine]

I want to spend more time reading the article. I have only read parts of it, but I knew it was worth sharing.

Tobi, if I didn't know we live so far apart I would think you were talking about someone I know.

We have lost the ability to just live quietly and contentedly. I think animals can teach that to us again.

I do believe that Dolphins have language. Certainly animals like dogs and cats understand many words, but dolphins actually talk to each other. Very likely elephants talk to each other. Other animals communicate, but dolphins have sounds.

I am sure there are more than ten lessons to be learned. The important thing is to recognize that animals are the teachers.