While the meme is funny, this past weekend was definitely full of drama, wasn’t it? Besides the assassination attempt (which sadly happened in my hometown, really close to where I grew up), we lost a few quite notable celebrities of my generation’s “coming up days” – Richard Simmons, Dr. Ruth and Shannen Doherty (it’s really surreal to be of the age, where more and more of the household names of the 70s-90s are passing at what feels like a more rapid pace. Gulp.), and the Euros finals, and the Wimbledon finals were played. (Didn’t Princess Kate look beautiful and radiant? It was lovely to see her out and about with her daughter.)
May this week be less of a slap, and more of a pause, for all of us. Let’s all be extra cautious, careful and considerate. There’s intense energy swirling all of us in this world. Let’s all find our calm in the center of our storms.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:
1046. Finish this sentence as if it were your life: “It was a dark and stormy night . . .” (I had to pick this one because last night we had a window rattler of a storm. Even our collie, Josie, was hiding in the laundry room and she rarely shows fear.)
These are drawings that Beatrix Potter (author of Peter Rabbit and other beloved children’s classic books) made of her dog, Kep. Kep was a rough collie which is the same breed of dog as the legendary “Lassie.” (interestingly the Lassie TV series featured nine different collies, and they were all male) My father and my aunts were raised with a collie named Irish, who became a legend in our family lore. Irish might as well have been one of the Lassie actors, because by many accounts, he saved all of their lives more than once, by coming out of nowhere and attacking rabid wild animals that were out to maim precious, innocent school children. Still, Irish was also gentle and intelligent enough to meet the kids at the bus stop every single day, in order to escort them home.
Admittedly, I only half believed the hero collie stories that my father loved to recount about Irish. I saw fuzzy video footage of Irish, playing around and wrestling with my grandfather, and he appeared to be a majestic, beautiful dog as most collies are, but he died long before I was born. I never met the real-life version of Irish.
Years ago, when our four children were still young, our beautiful family dog – a rare, fun-loving Irish Water Spaniel named Little Bit had died of old age, and I wanted to get a new family dog, but I didn’t want to raise a puppy, as I had my hands full with my busy, energetic little children. Therefore, I put an ad on Craigslist asking if anyone needed to rehome a dog, whose purpose would be a family dog for a boisterous young family of two parents and four little kids. A while ago, on the blog, as a memorial to her recent death, I wrote this same story about how Lacey, our first collie, came into our lives. Still, the story bears repeating (as most of our legendary pet stories do). A farm couple reached out to me about needing to rehome a collie named Lacey. When I drove hours and hours into the deep countryside, I found a nervous, edgy Lacey to be flea-bitten, missing hair on her back where donkeys had kicked her, and she was being kept in a rusted cage with chihuahuas. (Please don’t judge these people. They didn’t live much better than she did. They had hoped that Lacey would have herded the donkeys, instead of getting harmed by them, and they recognized that she needed a better place to live. They gave me one of the best gifts which I have ever received in my lifetime, and for that, I will be forever grateful to them.) At that time, however, I was not enchanted with Lacey. I didn’t think that she “fit the bill” for what we were looking for in a family dog, but I didn’t want to leave her there, in that dire state, either. I brought Lacey back with me, with the full intention of giving her to a collie rescue, but we all know how that goes. Looking back, I believe that I probably fell in love with Lacey on the ride back home. The rest is history (and now family lore and legend).
We currently have another collie named Josie and let me tell you, everything that you have ever read, watched or seen about collies is true. “Lassie” is a true story. Period. Collies are the perfect mix of the most gentle, even-keeled, observant, sweet, intelligent dogs, with a strong flare of “look out, I will come out from nowhere, and cut you if you mess with me or my family, and you won’t even see it coming”. Lacey and Josie, both, were/are the leaders of the pack (we’ve always had multiple dogs) and yet, they carry their leadership so subtly, you wouldn’t even know it. They truly temper when to strike. Visitors have always loved our collies the best, out of all of the various dogs we’ve shared our lives with. Why not? Collies are beautiful, regal, elegant, friendly and mostly obedient. (When Josie doesn’t want to do something, and I pull on her leash, she does the “collie nose slide”, where she ducks her head in such a way that the collar slides off of her neck and down from her long, pointy nose. She then sits there, looks at me knowingly, and allows me to slide the collar back on to her neck. She humors us by wearing a collar, but Josie has made her point. “Lady, I’m not interested in going where you want me to go. I’ll do it on my own volition. Now let’s carry on.”)
Yes, we do have tumbleweeds of fur floating around our house on a regular basis. Yes, we do have a fur kid who announces the Amazon guy, pesky squirrels, and Ralphie, our Labrador retriever jumping into the pool, with a loud, insistent, alarming bark that does get annoying at times. And yes, we do have a dog who has made it her duty to be as loyal, loving, and measuredly, observantly protective as any dog can ever be. When I realized recently, that Beatrix Potter, one of my favorite authors, was another lover of rough collies, it made my heart sing. Kep. Irish. Lassie. Lacey. Josie. . . . . nothing less than legendary.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:
Happy Friday!!Happy Favorite Things Friday!!! Josie, our collie, “helps” me to make our bed every morning. She has this innate sense when I am doing it (there’s no set time – I’m all over the map in the mornings) and she considers it her sacred duty to rush into our room in order to help me to complete this task. It is a big bonding time for us (without her male counterparts). I don’t know what I would ever do without her help (and this has nothing to do with making the bed). Dogs will always be one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES.
My favorite item for this particular Friday is the Bamboo Trading Company beaded club bags. These lovely pieces of art are reasonably priced, they come in an enormous variety of styles and themes, and they are the perfect sized, crossbody bags to carry your phone, keys and wallet for a day of walking around town, without breaking your back. For the attention to detail, and the massive variety available, these bags are reasonably priced and addicting to collect. And you feel good about purchasing these items because this is the Bamboo Trading Company’s mission: “We work with communities around the world to lift families out of poverty. In the process we create on-trend, affordable fashion that is collectible, fun, and inspiring.”
You can buy your own Bamboo Trading Company beaded bag (or 12) at their website, on Amazon, and you can find them at many smaller gift shops around the States.
As I collie lover, I couldn’t resist this one. Collies are actually patient and trusting enough to put up with this silliness. I don’t know much about cows, but they probably are, too. Animals are wonderful.
Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish readers! May it be a wonderful, meaningful experience for you.
The other day, the six of us in our family, were sitting at a picnic table eating a picnic brunch. A little boy was at a nearby table, sitting with his own family, who were much more dignified, quiet and subdued than our family. (Our family has a tendency to lean towards loud and rambunctious.)
“You’re loud and full of nonsense!” the little boy announced to us. We all laughed heartily at the comment, and so he repeated it several times over. I wanted to adopt him. He clearly fit right in with us.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Our eldest son came home for the holidays yesterday. If our son didn’t realize how excited his mom and dad were for him to be here, our dogs made sure to show him. To be as uninhibited as a happy dog, should be on all of our holiday wish lists this year.
Speaking of dogs, I had sort of a mystical experience this weekend, when I opened up a box of a Christmas wreath which we never put up, but we keep in our attic year after year. In the box, was only the wreath and a small, white satin pouch. I opened the pouch and I found an ornament with a picture of Lacey, my first collie and the dog who transformed me and loved me like no other dog in my life. I do not recall ever buying, or seeing this ornament. It touched my heart deeply and I felt connected to the spirit of Lacey and all the love she gave to me and our family. This ornament will be the centerpiece of this year’s tree.
“Beautiful things don’t ask for attention.” – Sean Penn, quote from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
A friend of mine recently asked me why I never write about Josie, our collie. Do you still have her? Yes, of course, she still lives with us. Josie is a gem. I never write about Josie, because she is perfect. We never write about the perfect things in our lives, do we? The perfect things, we totally and completely, take for granted.
Josie is stunningly beautiful. Her coloring is succinctly divine. Sometimes people gasp when they see her. She’s that pretty. Recently, we were walking the three pups and two sisters passed us. (I know that they were sisters because they had the exact same face, just different hair.) The seemingly more outgoing sister exclaimed, “Oh my God! That collie is GORGEOUS!!”
The less outgoing, and probably more people-pleasing sister quickly blurted in, “They’re all beautiful. All of the puppies are beautiful!” She said this frantically, as if Ralph and Trip could understand the words, and had their feelings hurt.
Josie prances as she walks, and her tail swishes back and forth, with its perfect little white tip, so engagingly and tantalizingly perfect. Not to be weird, but her tail swishing is kind of alluring and sexy, in a way. If she weren’t spayed, she would drive male dogs mad with desire. Josie crosses her front paws when she lays down, ladylike and coy. Her white mane looks like a ravishing fur stole. Josie is Audrey Hepburn in dog form.
We got Josie when she was eight months old. She was raised by a young man with Down Syndrome. I suppose that must have had a huge influence on her beautiful, kind, gentle and calm nature. We never had to train Josie. She never messed in the house. She walks on a lead like a dream. Josie, always sweetly, lets strange children come up to kiss her on her long, elegant collie nose, without a flinch. She guards Ralphie ferociously, as he swims in the pool and she licks Trip clean of the spray from Ralphie’s water shakes. Josie’s maternal instinct runs deep in her bones and it shows. She doesn’t like squirrels and she probably barks too much at them, but that’s okay. I don’t like squirrels either. Our dog trainer said that there is no doubt that Josie is the lead dog in our house. She is queen bee in a stealth way. She only raises her voice when she (barks) at squirrels. Yet, supposedly, she rules the roost. Trip and Ralphie, obviously revere her and adore her in equal measure. (much like the rest of us)
We named Josie after a beloved, bonding family trip to Yosemite National Park. Yosemite turned into an easier to say, “Josie”. I honestly was pretty hesitant to give Josie my full heart. Her predecessor was Lacey, the first collie who stole my heart and who will own a piece of my devoted heart forever. Lacey is/was a legend in our family lore. Still, Josie has wormed her way into my vein of utter devotion. And she never tried to force her way in. Josie just wakes up every morning, ever loving, ever joyful, ever elegant, and yet ever uninhibited. And I thank God every day for her absolute divine presence. I don’t write about Josie, because I don’t want to jinx anything. Josie is almost too good to be true. Josie is perfect.
