Good morning…
At 4:18 am she emailed me after reading our post Grief Strips Us Naked.
“Sue,” she wrote. “These are wonderful passages spoken by those whose grief walked them to new understanding. In a few hours, at dawn‘s break, we will say goodbye to our brown eyed girl, our 13 year old lab. As a part of our family, she is the expression of our happiest moments: tail wag, nose up ready to remind us it was good to be alive.”
“Now we stand at the edge, between having and not having,” she explained. “We baptized her with the Jordon River water we contained in small bottles. Though her body is tired from holding on until we returned, her love reminds me that it cannot be contained in a body. In a few hours, I will walk her home.”
“How dear,” I replied. “Your email brings tears to my eyes. Such unconditional love is generated with our dogs. Tail wags. Finger to fur time. Pure joy in our every return. It is lasting love that stays alive in us as our four legged friends transition to their forever home with God. When it’s our turn to arrive in the land beyond our knowing, we will share the most magnificent tail wags, fur time, and pure joy forever.”
“You are in my prayers, sweet friend, as you midwife your baby back to God,” I concluded.
“Sue, such a sweet saying – ‘midwife back to God,'” she replied. “Beautiful!”
At 4:55 am she emailed again, likely sharing this loving tribute with a handful of her closest soul friends.
******
Brown eyed girl by Kathy Lee
It is early. In a few hours, we will say goodbye to our Ginny. Her little legs have worn a path through our family’s hearts, and they are tired. Tail wag and nose down, she has been with us through our happiest moments. Intended to lure a child home from India, her puppy cuteness reminded us how good it was to be alive: to feel the earth, to sip from the fountain, to keep watch.
We stand now on the precipice between having and not having. We baptized her with water from the river Jordon, said The Lord’s Prayer and tried to imagine together-she and I-what our new lives will hold in the emptiness.
Then, she looked at me with those sweet brown eyes, and reminded me that love cannot be contained in a body.
I hold this in the deep places of my heart as I walk her home.
******
Kathy Lee and I have not seen one another in years. When our kids were in preschool and elementary, their boys went through Lovett where my husband Steve was their high school chaplain and wrestling coach, religion teacher and spiritual mentor. Our family loved their family and, when our kids were little, we would bake homemade cookies and take them to the Lee home before the Christmas Eve service at Northside Church. Our four kids would take turns hopping up and playing their piano, a delight we did not have in our home. Catching up on the happenings of our families was a fun part of our annual Christmas tradition.
These memories were born way before Ginny was born, and as the Lee family says a good goodbye to their loyal lab, I trust that life-giving memories of Ginny will be reborn in their hearts, again and again, always and forever.
Jesus reminds us: “When a woman gives birth, she has a hard time, there’s no getting around it. But when the baby is born, there is joy in the birth. This new life in the world wipes out memory of the pain. The sadness you have right now is similar to that pain, but the coming joy is also similar” (John 16:21-22, MSG).
…Sue…
