Eighth Month Dream

Early this morning, I had a very clear dream about Sparkey. He and I were walking on a beautiful wooded path in the autumn, a time of year when his golden coat would match the forest. He was running excitedly back and forth on the path as was his wont when he was in his full adult healthy glory. The path wound along between old brick buildings which had been somewhat subsumed by the forest, although several of the buildings had outdoor patios which people seemed to use to enjoy the splendor of the woods.

A man came up behind us and Sparkey seemed to recognize him, running quickly up to greet him. The man said he remembered Sparkey clearly, and told a brief story how Sparks had once come running up to him in the forest and had given him a kiss. The man described how he had been healed by that kiss and the love which it communicated.

I assume that the man represented a part of me which was healed by Sparkey, and I can clearly see how Sparkey's love will continue to heal me long after his body has returned to the soil. Sitting by his grave yesterday, I told Mary that I could understand now that Sparkey's body was in the earth, but he wasn't really there at all. Mary said, "Yes, that's just his bag of bones, and he shook his bag his bones." Shook indeed. He shook himself free, and it's up to us to be sensitive enough to feel his love from that noncorporeal place.

One Year Ago

Here's a photo of our Golden Boy one year ago, climbing our favorite small local mountain. When Sparks was a new puppyish member of our family long ago, we lived at the base of this mountain and he learned to hike off-leash in these very woods. He quickly became the kind of dog who would calmly wait for us at each fork in the path to make sure we didn't get lost. He always seemed at his happy best in the woods.....


---Keith