Tag Archives: new life

We have gone to the Dogs:

We have had at least 8 dogs that are and were not our dogs! Wolfgang was a black lab puppy my oldest son brought home when he was a freshman in college! Wolfgang would bite your feet (it hurt let me tell you) until you played with him – he did not run out of gas!!! Before we knew it he started running the neighborhood and – he was hit by a car breaking a hip and slowing him down! Nursed him back / he became my traveling pal! Hyper hyper hyper. Hip injury took it’s toll!

Then came Winston – Australian Shepherd – same son – after college! Dog got on the back of someone’s truck and got lost. Winston had our name / number on Veterinarian rabbies tag! Someone called Vet – Bet called my wife. She wouldn’t let our son have the dog back! Winston became my pal too – walk – walk – bounce up walk walk walk – Just like herding sheep – bounce up to look over sheep = me! Winston just got old! Made me cry the day he died!

Well then there was Scarlet – bad habit Russel Terrier – loved chasing cars – found her in the street one morning – sad. With Scarlet came Mick – bull massive – big boy – my wife managed to find Mic a loving home with kids! Both from – you guessed it the same son whose mom set down the law!

Whew! Thought I was finally free! Neighbors sold home and left dog behind – wife fed him – another pal – Brownie was the name we gave her! Unknown to use a hound dog must have been watching – cause little by little he came closer and closer! Brownie’s pal. I called him Little Bit becuase he won’t get close enough to touch! But Inch by inch- day by day, week after week Little Bit moved in. Unfortunately, Little Bit also loved to chase cars – not good!

After a time the Vet discovered found Brownie had had heart worms for a very long time – oh my! A few more tears!

Let your hearts not weary! Bailey, the other neighbors dog had obviously been watching and found an opening – another pal! Bailey was already old and soon began having trouble getting those hind legs to follow! Lots of consulting with the neighbor and the day finally came!

The cold of winter is here – but the signs of new life surround hidden in the wet cold ground around! It’s kinda like some how I managed to learn I can smell nature cooking a brew of nutrients from what appears as all the dead stuff that surrounds!

Took my tractor for a ride in the cold! She fussed a bunch and blew smoke as I started her up! But you know she started to purr as she warmed up to the chore of pulling a harrow in toe! Magic all around if one just open eyes and ears to listen for sounds – new birth mixed into the earths brew! Hills and valleys lie ahead for sure and treasures await for those open to search! Wow! The wonders of the spirit of life – Not for a single second did I think I’ll of anyone – not once did I encounter a trace of ill or hate!

Get it together folks – we are called to be in one spirit = united! The dogs figured it out – just say hi – I wish you a blessed day even when all I can do is only negotiate an inch at a time!

Playing with Fire

Playing with Fire! Well actually this is a prescribed burn and what it looks like. Use fire to extinguish fire. The dead wood and brush of the earth are converted to ash! Catholics should know except maybe they haven’t figured out ash contains nutrients that serve as fertilizer for new life!! Kinda like confession to rid the soul of death in exchange for the essential grace that sustains the rebirth of new life! I am gonna smell like smoke when I get home! Thank God I have a laundry woman! Don’t step a foot in this house until you Give me them clothes!!!

Tail Waging!

With a New Year comes new beginnings and realities of time marching on! Each day something must die that we might have new life! We don’t think about that! This time of year reality can catch us off guard.

We have our sixth dog that is not our dog. It is the neighbors dog who has had the run of the neighborhood and has acquired multiple eating places. Things changed on an intense stormy day when this dog joined our fourth and fifth dogs, that also were not our dogs, in our garage to escape the heavy rain. Some weeks later our fourth dog that is not our dog passed and the fifth was hit by a car.

Then one evening when my wife was out of town a sudden storm with heavy rain rushed over the neighborhood. To my surprise I heard the neighbor dog knocking at the back porch door. I let her in and intended to let her back out when the storm relented. When it got late, the storm wasn’t running out of gas, so I let the dog spend the night. No good deed done in secret escapes my wife.
Well if I could do that! – magically a dog bed showed up in front of the TV. To my surprise another sprang forth in the bedroom. The sixth dog – not our dog – was crowned queen without my consent! Her 1st thrown was in front of the TV so she could over see us and another in the bedroom to watch us during the night. It must have been magic because overnight this dog – not our dog, began to model my wife’s pattern of shepherding. She would search the house until she found us and then attempted to guide us to where we were supposed to be. She would lay and wait and not go to her thrown/bed until we were in the right places.

Long ago our neighbor who is very busy with small children learned by watching the dog leaving the yard and the kids running after my wife’s car or mine when we came home. It was not a walk or a slow trot – it was a I can’t wait to see you run. The dog is 14 and the children made her nervous and my wife and I are slow.

Well the chill and cold of the New Year brought to light those 14 year old hind legs don’t want to work like they should. And during a recent long cold night her struggles intensified. Getting up has become a mighty effort but her desire to search for us just as intense! Her trips outside now require assistance and careful monitoring after. The time for traveling the neighborhood – not so much – it is obvious to our neighbor as well mother time is running short.

So many memories and pets! I have to ask! Who knows someone who is struggling, is broken in some way, lost in the neighborhood, looking to get out of the storm and the rain, just hoping someone will notice they exist, isolated in a crowd of busy people, praying someone will search for them and ask whats up and invite them in? How many have I am mad at you relative? A dog will receive us with boundless joy and eagerness all over if only our body makes a slight welcome motion – come and enter my safe space. Forgiveness is a dogs nature! How come we humans are so slow to reach out to humans beyond ourselves?

The dogs of my life – even those that are not my dogs have taught me much time and again – they never ever give up even to the end. Imagine we each have been gifted with scars, struggles, rejection, loss, failures and sin. Yea I mean you too – the one who thinks they have nothing to offer! Far far far greater is the potential of those willing to risk reaching way into the depths of their soul and setting free the breath of new life that can be carried on the wind to a soul wondering? Just say “hey I am thinking of you and hope all is well”! Amen – and then why is my tail waging?

Open the Door!!!!

Open door policy! Sometimes a door gets closed on us we didn’t ask for or expect. Sometimes we just didn’t see it coming. So what do we humans do? Been happening a lot recently. We have lots and lots of folks jumping up and down demanding the closing or closed door be opened.

Wouldn’t be any of you would it?

Some will eventually come grudgingly to understand, yep, God does have an open door policy. He will let us in if we’ll just start looking around for the door opening and come right in when we find it! Problem is for many of us humans, we just insist on focusing on that old closed door and rehash over and over the limits imposed because the door closed.

And so many people tend to put God in a selfie defined “Box”. Don’t tell them, but God escapes before the lid to the box is closed. Think about it, God may well have something far better in mind than what we might have left behind that old door – the past that cannot be relived. Yep it might be scary and it might make us stretch but it might just be full of the new life promised and filled with a great treasure just looking for a safe place to reside.

Gosh isn’t that what we are longing for – new life, a breath of fresh air, a fresh start, I can’t wait any longer – where is that door – somebody turn me lose!

Everyone gets a Gift

 

God gives everyone gifts. Sometimes it takes years to figure out the gifts we are given. God gave me a gift to let go! I didn’t know I had this gift until I was in the midst of discerning God’s call to speak his message that I didn’t know I already knew. God had blessed me with a gift of becoming a rain maker. Funny the term rain. It’s water the well spring of new life. In this case it was money, jobs, funding and a benefit to the work I did. I birthed, developed and created an idea, a concept using the analytical skill of observation. An art form if you will of being able to see what others can not see.

When one births such a baby, one becomes attached to that baby – after all it was my baby. But God wanted me to learn and do something else. So he gave me a test. Will you give up your baby to serve a greater baby? Well that’s not how I saw it then. Man I didn’t want to give up that baby!

But God knew something about me I didn’t know. I was riding on an airplane back from Washington D.C. and tears began to roll down my cheeks. I now know my spirit was giving up that baby and the tears were telling me to trust that I was being sent to bring good news that new life is always possible for those willing to open their eyes and ears to see the spirit working in our world.

So what baby are you holding onto? Can you let that baby go?

I let that baby go and a few years later that baby came back to me seeking new life!

What is that “A Puddle”?

The Baptism of the Lord   January 13, 2013

The Possibilities Story:

“In the beginning”.  The Heavens opened and the Spirit hovered over the waters, the wellspring of all life.  It is a story of not only the beginning but the story of a companion who will travel with us on a journey to continual rebirth.  It is a story of the very real possibility of being reborn to the possibility a fresh start with the breath of new life again and again without end.  When we are down in the dumps – know within lives the grace of our baptism.

What is it that we are longing to be reborn to?  What road block and impossibility is it that we want to overcome?  What is the magic secret tonic, brew or medicine or ingredient will do the trick for us.  Is it possible we may already have received and have at our finger tips such a magical and spiritual potion?

Let’s examine that theory!  It was the kindergarten teacher’s birthday and the students decided that they would each give their teacher a gift.

The first student, whose parents own a florist shop, gave her a present. She held it and said “I guess that it is flowers”. “How did you guess?” asked the little boy. She laughed and thanked him.

The second student, whose parents own a candy store, gave her a present. She held it and said, “I guess that is some candy.”  “How did you guess?” asked the little boy. She again laughed and thanked him also.

The third student, whose parents own a bottle of spirits shop, gave her a box which was leaking. The teacher touched the liquid with her finger and tasted it. “Mmmmm is it wine?” she asked.  “No,” said the little girl.

So she tasted it again. “Is it champagne?” she asked.  “Noooo,” replied the little girl, “It’s a puppy.”

Do we know God loves you even when we “P” all over ourselves!

Water and God and the Wind of Creation

Yep he sure does and that’s what today lesson is all about!  And did you know “dog” spelled backwards spells “God”?

You see God is like a puppy, when we come back to him He gets so excited the grace of our baptism begins to sprinkle, and pour all over us again like the very first time.  Come back to me with all your heart and I will cover you with living waters.

From time to time in life we need a way, sneaky as it may be, to be reminded of who we are!  Our frail human nature and the world ties us up in knots which can causes us to lose track of our spiritual history and forget who we are.  Sometime we forget where we all originally came from and for what purpose we were created in the first place.

Listen again for the first time!   At his baptism “the heavens were opened” 237 – the heavens that Adam’s and Eve’s sin had closed – and the waters were sanctified again by the descent of Jesus and the Spirit of God descended upon the waters – the wellspring of all life.

The Spirit who had hovered over the waters of the first creation descended in the bodily form of a dove upon Christ.  A new beginning, a new creation, and God the Father revealed Jesus as his “beloved Son.”  This is the prelude to the greatest story ever told.

Baptism is a Living Sacrament:

Baptism is not limited to and just that sacrament we received so very long ago!  Baptism is a living sacrament.

Baptism is the pathway that opens a doorway to new life in every blind alley. Baptism is the doorway that lead to the Eucharist, which overcomes death.  Jesus Baptism preceded the Baptism which he had to be baptized.

The blood and water that flowed from the pierced side of the crucified Jesus are types of Baptism and the Eucharist, the sacraments of that opened the pathway from death to new life.

From then on, it is possible “to be born of water and the Spirit” in order to enter the Kingdom of God. [766]   This is the good news to which each of us are called.

Go – Go out into the world!

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”