The meaning of Teal Stone
my Heart dog
When I was 12 years old, I was sensitive and dealing with anxiety and OCD.
One day my mom picked me up from school and we drove to the animal shelter, where I met a puppy that would steal my heart and shape my entire life. I named him Stone, and we grew up together. On my family’s farm, he saw me through everything. Middle school, high school, my first car, my first job, and endless shifts within my life. Things kept changing, but Stone remained constant. He helped me care for my 4-H rabbits, the chickens, the horses, and everything in between.
It eventually came time for me to move to the Indiana Wesleyan University for my freshman year, and for the first time in my life I had to leave Stone behind. Every summer I would move home and things would go back to normal for us.
After attending the university for four years, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design and moved back home for a while, where a noticeably aging Stone was always there to greet me. I got married to my best friend, Jamison, in the summer of 2015, and when we moved in together, that change felt the heaviest and most final for my life lived with my constant heart dog. He couldn’t come with us, because he was heavily bonded with my mom’s dog, Breezie, and I didn’t want to take him away from the country he grew up in. I visited him often. Every following year, I noticed how frail he was growing. Our nearly 16-year journey ended in February of 2020, when I had to say my final goodbye to the dog that saw me through everything and loved me despite my flaws, mistakes, anxiety, and self-esteem.
That spring my turned into one of the busiest seasons of my entire life. To keep myself occupied, I worked. And I worked, and I worked, and I worked. I took all that pain of loss and started pouring my heart and soul into this small piece of land that my husband and I own, just to try and feel closer to the life I grew up with in the country with my dog. And now looking out into what I’ve created, I think he would be proud of me, and I think he would love it here. Perhaps in another life he could see what I’ve accomplished, and we can share it together.
You only get a dog like that once in a lifetime.
Teal: Calming. Renewal. Revitalizing & Rejuvenating. Infinity.
Stone: My forever heart dog.
In honor of his influence on my life and to always remind myself to live like we used to, when things were wild and carefree, and love was unconditional.