Blackie's Perfect; Rufie's Trouble

Blackie is old. She cries at the bottom of the stairs, needing to come up from the basement to go outside, wishing we'd install an elevator for her. But back in her prime, she was a frisky gal. She never did like to play fetch, but she let the boys dress her a couple of times, and she always wanted to be where the action was. When she would escape, she'd go across the street to roll in horse manure. Ah, simple pleasures.

Rufus is young. He loves -- lives -- to chase tennis balls. He routinely fits two in his mouth, and can bat a third ball around with his paws. Christmas for Rufus is a brand-new bag of balls, given all at once. Ohmygoodness, such excitement! But there is one thing that can distract Rufus from a game of fetch. The neighbors have cats, you see. And cats run when you chase them. Did I mention that Rufus is quick? He caught one of the cats last month. He got hold of it, and the injury was serious enough that the neighbors had to put their cat down. This week, he chased another one. We're working on getting a fence put up, and soon.

I keep reminding Blackie how perfect and wonderful she is. She has always been kind and gentle and good, even when she could run like the wind. After all, the dead rabbit in our yard was never tested for her DNA. And who knows how far the wind carried those chicken feathers before we found them in the flowerbed.

Wow, we sound like terrible people. We are working on completing the fence. And we need to protect our pets from the coyotes who share the neighborhood wetlands.

Lassie's Not For The Dogs

I watched a movie last night.

I'm so far behind the times when it comes to pop culture, and movies in particular, that it's almost funny. Sometimes, my sons will tell me the plot of a movie they've seen in the theater. Good enough. I don't like being taken for a ride, emotionally, and that's precisely what movies do. They pull you into another reality. No, thanks, I'll just stay home.

For the record, I used to watch movies, and I even paid money to do so. But these days I have other things I'd rather do -- like watch Deadliest Catch or something on TLC or good ol' Red Green. Oh, and I see a LOT of movies. In their cases. At work.

But last night, I happened to be channel surfing as this one movie began, and the narrative hooked me. The voiceovers were the first sentences of college entrance essays. Huh, that's interesting. Reminds me of one of the blogs I like to read. By the time I found out the movie's title, I had decided to keep watching.

Now, back to the library. As I said, I handle many movies every day. I see all the covers. There's this one with a photo of a certain comic actor and a huge sandwich on the front. That movie would NEVER interest me. It's obviously about a goofy guy who eats weird food and for whom English is a learned language. Silly.

But this movie that hooked me last night had a few very poignant scenes. And some of the main characters were, uh, not wound up very tightly, to borrow a phrase. They were downright odd, disconnected, inarticulate, emotional, and dysfunctional. I grew to like them -- well, most of them. There was a coming-of-age theme that attracted me. The scenery and cinematography were interesting. I had to find out how this movie ended, and I enjoyed being taken for a ride. Imagine that!

If you have any more involvement in pop culture than me, you already know that the "ELL sandwich movie" and the college essay movie are one and the same. Guess I was wrong when I judged that movie by its cover. Huh.

Mourning

I've got a whole slew of cousins. We had a family reunion last summer for Dad's side of the family. But since it was held in the home town of Mom's side, we got to see some of them, too. This spring, one of the aunts passed away, and many of the Dad's side cousins met again. I left those events feeling very warm and nostalgic.

I've got boy cousins. Boys? Some of them are retired, for gosh sakes! But I remember thinking that I felt like all of them were nearly my brothers. Except with these brother-cousins, there were no memories of fights, taunting, or any disagreements. Every time we were together when I was a kid was a good time.

I guess I'd call the gals my sister-cousins, but I never had a sister so can't fully relate to that relationship. But all the girls are pretty cool, and that brings me to today's post.

Janet's girls are a bit younger than me, and we all had great times at the family beach place. It was almost like having younger sisters, except Janet was always good about making me feel as important as an adult -- so I got to play both sides of the net! Janet and her girls, and my mom and I, were spending spring vacation together at the beach when I was 12. That was the week that my mom got sick. Really sick. We didn't know what was wrong, but Janet kept everything going as if my mom's illness was just a minor inconvenience.

Turns out, my mom had had a major stroke. That was the last week of my normal life. What followed was weeks of Mom being in bed, her good friend the nurse taking care of us, Dad taking over the cooking and laundry, and Mom not being quite Mom. Years. Adjustments on top of adjustments. Adolescence. Not being a grown-up, not being a kid.

Janet, her girls, her husband, all welcomed me in their home for a week in the summers. Sightseeing, relaxing, fun, school shopping, wildflowers, projects, music, playing. Janet was the one who told me how important it was that I go away to college. Janet wasn't my mother, wasn't my sister, but was one whom I would have called a wonderful friend.

Rest with Jesus, Janet. I will always, always be thankful for what you put into my life.

My New Best Friend?

The dogs don't go shopping, so I had to go to pick out new pants for youngest, definitely growing, son. While choosing a checkout lane (this was Target, after all!) I said hello to a lady I know from the library. We made nice chit-chat, and I mentioned that the clothes were for my son's graduation.

"Oh... from grammar school?"

Okay, I love this lady, now and almost forever. She stands in stark contrast to the three (count 'em, THREE) patrons who have asked me if I'm expecting! They will never receive anything but standard treatment from me. She, on the other hand, could ask for the moon, and I'd do my best to provide it (for the normal 28 day check-out period, of course.)

Dogs Don't Do Laundry

A few years ago, I came home from doing errands and heard water running in the utility room. That was odd, because I knew Blackie had been alone, and she had never started a load of wash before. Oh, no... Turns out, the upstairs toilet had popped a hose, and water was streaming down the outside of the drainpipe and into the basement.

As attentive as the dogs are, they limit their helpfulness to cleaning up food bits. They really would never think of doing the laundry, vacuuming the stairs, or defrosting the freezer. These are things they would not ever conceive of doing.

There may be a couple of things that would never cross God's mind. Awful things. Things that His people actually tried out, but that He would never condone. I shudder to read this, or to post it for you to read, but here it is:

And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind.

Just as there are ideas that God would never conceive, there are also thoughts which we are unable to originate.

But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory; but just as it is written,
"Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him."
For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

All things considered, I'm glad the dogs don't try to wash my clothes. And I'm thankful that there are things our God does not consider. But most amazing of all is the fact that, even though we cannot perceive the wisdom of God, He tells us all about it anyway!