I would like to start off my first ever blog entry with an expression of sincere gratitude to my friend, Teddy Towncrier for kindling a fire under me to reach out to the world through this blog, and thereby express my gifts to those in need. Thank you again, Teddy.
As I was brushing my guide dog early this morning, I was reflecting about what should be the first topic to discuss in my first ever blog entry. What came up was a comment a very pleasant senior lady had made to me in my favorite coffee shop the afternoon before. “Your dog is so wonderful. Too bad everyone wasn’t like that,” she said. “Actually,” I replied, “everyone is like that, deep down. We get bogged down in our complex lives. If we lived simply, like dogs, we would be a lot happier.” The lovely lady agreed wholeheartedly, I bid her my customary “Take care,” and I proceeded to the bathroom myself, and then outside to relieve my trusted companion.
With each stroke of the brush on my beloved canine, I felt the anguish of humanity as I experience it in the ever-present complaints of people I meet in my travels. If only people could truly grasp their capacity to grapple successfully with the obstacles in their paths, rather than blithely give lip-service to their need to “carry on,” without believing it. Imagine if they could see their challenges as opportunities to be spiritually transformed by their suffering. Look, I’m not saying, as many do, that you have to simply “push through” your challenges. But, here’s the thing: do you ever admit how difficult your life is? Do you really feel to the core of your being how close you are to giving up? Do you ever come to the brink of death, dance at the edge, feel the suction and seductive power of the abyss of death, and then, at the last moment, pull back and wait for a sign that maybe it’s not your time to go? In that grace moment, are you ever invited to ponder what you are still here to do before, as Shakespeare paints it, you “shuffle off this mortal coil,” as the snake does its skin?
Experience has taught me that life is a curriculum – a classroom – wherein you learn from everything coming your way. The best lessons are the hardest ones, but they have the most to teach. Learn, live, and learn some more. I’m sorry that you will suffer much pain as you learn, but there’s really no alternative. I wish it could be easier on you and me. But, take heart that we can lean on each other for support and love as we travel. And we get stronger by our efforts to help ourselves and each other. I’m afraid to say, however, that you have to do your own work. I can’t do yours, nor you, mine. We can love each other, though, can we not, and must we not? I think so. Peace and love.
