Right now I'm thinking of pets past.  Pets Passed.  Blessings to you who've provided comfy, happy, loving homes for animals who needed you. 

Zebu, the younger of my two Chinese Cresteds, died on June 19th of this year.  He was 12 and 1/2 years old.  I'm still working through the grief.  I know that sounds crazy to people without a great love for pets. 

Earlier in the year, my younger daughter's and son-in-law's cat Goliath died at an advanced age.  I grieve with them.  He was a giant among cats, and I'll miss sharing my ice cream with him when I'm in Orlando.  A few years ago he inspired me to write and illustrate some Haiku as I saw him lying next to the window, watching and dreaming of the hunt (though he was purely an indoor boy).

                                               


Merciful and kind are you who appreciate the wild ones, feed them when they need food, provide them with water, protect them, and concern yourselves over their ability to survive in a world increasingly unacquainted with the untamed.

Like many of you, I've also experienced the loss of some very important, beloved members of my extended human family this year. There have been eulogies, celebrations of their lives, and grieving which leave me nothing to say, except I miss them, love them, and always will.  

I believe we benefit from taking time to think through the comings and goings of lives intertwined with our own.  How have they, even the animals in our care, shaped us?

bb

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens...

Ecclesiastes 3:1

(New International Version IV)

It's bitter cold this morning.  A light snowfall persists, disproving the "no accumulation" prediction I just heard on the radio. I sweep a path across the patio from the back door to the yard, to make it less daunting for my hairless dog Zulu.  Even dressed in his little sweater, he backs away when he feels the cold air, so I'm carrying him outside.

There's something appropriate about the bitter cold arriving between Christmas and the new year. My sense of "being here" in the fullness of the present shivers and makes room for the past and future.

Seemingly random thoughts appear in front of me like the warm fog I breathe into the air while putting out seed for the birds. Words? Emotions? Pictures? Memories and Possibilities hang there in a nebulous cluster and dissipate with my next breath. I'm adrift, in a blizzard of wonder over what's happened in my life and what's yet to come.      

I love warmth and comfort, whether stretched out in a hammock beneath the summer shade trees or snuggled in a soft blanket in front of the fireplace watching the snow beyond the windows. Yet, when the startling wind of a brittle freeze stings my skin and burns my eyes, it can serve to shake me awake.  I'm reminded of the mystery and the magnificence of life from beginning to end. 

As the new year comes into view, I hope to spend time in meditation of all that I cherish, blessings I've received, people and situations I've learned from, sorrows experienced, mistakes I've made, and pain I've caused. (I'll strive to do this without self-hatred, for God loves his creation, and so must I.)  Resting into the presence of the Holy Spirit, I'll allow him to show me what He will of days to come.

I'm guarding against worry, praying for the world and all its creatures, and am filled with joy and gratitude. 

Oh, by the way, I'm not forgetting to pray for all those who are working outside or struggling in unheated conditions during these frigid days!  The winter cold, polar vortex, arctic front, or whatever we're calling it this time is way beyond metaphor for them.

--BB