A Barking Dog

TUES., MAR. 31, 1998, 6:25 AM
FARM, STUDY

You hear a dog barking in the early morning, and you know it is yours… and you can’t do anything to stop it, short of getting rid of the dog. This is “the country”, and you have no close neighbors. Thus it isn’t the problem it would be if you lived as most humans do – crowded together in an urban setting.

It is an annoyance, the barking, but it also highlights the positive opportunity you’ve had for the last over 26 years. After 46 years of living in cities you chose… or were led to this unique adventure. A barking dog is troublesome, but it can be a reminder of this “way of life”.

Many dogs have been yours to have over the years of your life. Some have been memorable, but the lives of dogs are short in comparison to yours, and hence there have been many, for various reasons. Though you have not been as mobile as many in your culture, you did not live long in one house until this became your home. Oh, there was a reason, and usually a good one, for each move. You had a moderate success orientation, and opportunities did arise. You, with Lenore as your life partner, met these… and thus have had a life with both stability and change. A barking dog is a reminder, an odd one, of how you have been blessed.

As a companion this presently barking dog is loyal and enthusiastic. She and her “step-sister”, Prudence, are, generally, a happy, compatible pair, a good part of your present life. Yet you realize this developing tendency to roam and bark may mean that her life will not be long. Let that raise the question: will your life be long? You now are past 3 score and 10. Your working life is officially over. You have some responsibilities, but fewer, certainly, than for most of your life. Yet life seems good… and still busy.

In terms of an earth life this one is “winding down”. This is not worrisome. You have little to no desire to finish out this life in dependence and dysfunction. And I do assure you that life, as spirit, does continue, and as you’ll rediscover, when the transition time comes, life in the spirit is the true essence of living. It thus is paradoxical (in the spirit of Ecclesiastes) that death is a rebirth into greater fullness, greater awareness of all that life is and can be. In a positive sense, let this affirmation be, to you, like unto a barking dog… this day and each.

Shouldn’t death be mourned? Oh, there is some reason to mourn the deaths of children and young people, but your culture, even its Christian manifestation, tends to be over covetous of earth life and reluctant to accept that “moving on” is a great adventure, no matter what your age.

Knowing this and hearing My frequent assertions about what is truly real should motivate you to do more in preparation for this transition. For everything there is a season… certainly applies. I want you to live the rest of your human life fully, but with the realization that, real as it seems, it is not true life. And if you know this, why not prepare for what comes next. (And let Me assure you: being aware of and preparing for the fullness of life will not hasten your demise. It should just make the rest of this earth adventure more “real”. Hear that barking dog!?)

I like the dedication you have to your tasks as Clerk of Session and to that longer “regular” as writer and editor of your church’s Newsletter. Symbolically, this “issue” of Our Ruminations should be finished today… and then you shall see how arduous it will be to put it into printed form. You still have some opportunities to speak… and teach. Savor each of these, but accept, with some pleasure, that you have completed your full-time career.