HAPPY NEW YEAR! MAY NEXT YEAR BE BETTER!!!

 

THE WORST YEAR EVER

(By: Karla Wagener on December 31, 2020)

Unusual gatherings, New Year celebrations, people getting together. Ruby didn´t even know it was the worst year ever!  She was oblivious to the situation.  People waiting hours for ambulances, tests for the virus, emergencies or medical attention, and ever so many other problems related to covid or some other problems.  Ruby was healthy.  She ate well and played in the yard.  She ran with Angelo back and forth and chased him, barking happily.

What was wrong with the World?  Didn´t they hear the presages of old to stay in and ¨wait upon the Lord¨?  Ruby understood all that.  She stuck close to home and was pleased with small joys and was pleased with simple pleasures.

Yet… she too knew she would die some day. Safety was placed on the hope of a spinning wheel and, of course, thanks to health care workers, and front line workers.  Knowledge that the world would bounce back from all this kept many going.  Ruby understood it all better than anyone. Ruby was cared for.  She lived the present. She could hold on to the belief that her best welfare was taken care of.  She had people who cared for her.

Ruby´s worry was what she would leave behind as a legacy, a bone, a bark, a memory, a photo, a caress or nod of her head?

As she pondered on this her owner´s son, Angelo, came into the back yard with a guitar.  ¨Ruby, I am going to record a song.  Please do not bark¨. Angelo began to sing and play the guitar.  Ruby didn´t notice the recorder was on.  She barked happily accompanying the music. She loved to listen to Angelo singing.  Angelo cringed.  The music flowed.  Lyrics of hope in desperate times came forth. Ruby participated!  It was like some super powerful energetic force that made a renewed conception which reverted what had happened and helped a new impulse of something better begin to come forth.

Ruby, (so weak, precarious, so very fragile, needing to be cared for), felt herself to be a major part of this.  It was principally because she believed in life, in good.  And maybe it was because she just wanted good and love so much!

More than anything else, Ruby was thankful.  She was thankful for finding a really good adoptive family, for food, water and happy outings.  How could she express her thanks for so much benefit in her life, for life itself?

She especially liked being taken to the bar downtown during social distancing times.  It was a place they could go to since there were tables set outdoors and distancing could be maintained.  And she got to go because it was outside and animals were allowed. She was always dressed in a colorful skirt matching a bow that was placed around her snout.  She would prance about and the waitresses fussed over her. They gave her snacks to eat.  She even got to eat some peanuts which she loved, but not too many since they are hard to digest.

This all made her really happy in spite of the worst year ever; at least that is what she heard about it.  She was thankful even though she realized that one day she too would die at some time.  She considered that her excited barkings would be the only legacy she would leave behind, but that caused her a great satisfaction because she knew they were meaningful. 

Everyone laughed a lot that December 31, 2020 on the last day of the worst year ever. They laughed so much at hearing Ruby´s barking on Angelo´s recordings of a song of hope for 2021!

Here are the lyrics of that song written by Angelo´s mother (me):

PILGRIM SOUL (By: Karla Wagener)

To find that something felt missing

You must go out of your safety zone.

Empty spaces are there to be filled

When you best not be alone.

 

Ideals lead to searching.

Curiosity must be fed.

The soul has many yearnings

And must be allowed to be lead.

 

It is the inclination of nature

Which exercises the commands

That causes many to reach out to yearned for lands.

 

Some experiences, no matter how happy or sad

Are just better left in the distant past.

When they are over you may find

It is time to put up your mast.

 

So as to discover others in your life felt missing

Go out of your safety zone

In realizing you need fulfillment

You will discover your best range and tone!

Christmas is rebirth!

 

TWO WEEPING WILLOWS

(By: Karla Wagener on October 31-November 1, 2020)

        Revelation 21: 1-8

Some men are cutting down the two willows on our land.

They were like sleek gentle lovers.

I can hear the crashes of logs and branches blasting out.

The saw hums; the thumps pound.

The willows no longer cry or whisper.

They no longer sing to each other.

They won´t give shade anymore or dirty the land or the house

With their many branches and leaves.

 ¨All things to be made new¨.

Parasites had destroyed both trees´ insides,

Like jealousy and possessiveness destroy tender lovers.

They were so tall, so old, so very proud!

So very beautiful, graceful, humid.

It causes sadness.

Yet they will cry no more.

¨All tears, all tears

Will be wiped away¨.

¨All things to be made new¨.

We still don´t have the imagination or creative power

To realize and assimilate this delicate, so intricate hour

Until we too have been cut down;

At best to be renewed and begin to grow again.

My Resolution letter for 2021!

 

RESOLUTION FOR 2021 (By: Karla Wagener)

In society it is common to see hypocritical, materialistic, individualistic, promiscuous, aggressive egocentric, prejudiced attitudes.

Also, can be found an orderly, organized, patriotic, loyal desire to promote solidarity and union.  It is a contradiction.

Isolation often stalks people, especially adolescents who find it difficult to make their way, or older people, or the weak and fragile who find themselves alone.

When I was young I didn´t dote on drugs or promiscuity, fast cars, violent sports or loud boisterous parties.  We were the odd ones.  My mom once talked to me about ¨late bloomers¨.  A friend once asked me, ¨What is wrong with us?¨

On December 1, 2020, I woke up from dreams at 4:20 a.m. about betting on numbers in a casino type place and some young kid followed me around so I gave him numbers to play and we didn’t win anything.  But the dream seemed prophetic to me.  It seemed all very good to me, like it was possible to win, and idealism was possible.

It will take more than money to achieve my dreams.  I bet all I have in what I believe in and feel sure (I see it happening in small ways), that it will surface.  I believe in conversion.  I believe in miracles.  I have hope in spite of this past year of 2020 with its many ups and downs, mostly on the downspin.  What will it take to make my dreams come true?

PSYCHOLOGICAL CROSS (By: Karla Wagener)

A lifelong contemplation

Has been a load of thought,

Getting to the roots through soul searching,

Listening deeply to lessons taught.

 

A cross chosen by free election,

Perhaps often quite unperceived,

Has brought forth resurrection

Of the growth of veracity.

 

The need to bring forth a pure, pure heart,

An unseen place inside

Where all the answers to every little thing, reside.

 

There exists more than can now be imagined.

(At one time having been the odd one …)

Requited as life advances, dear daughter, and dear sons!

So my resolution for 2021 is to try to accept people for what they are and point out things that bother me in a polite way.  I will listen to others´ comments too and try to become better.  I see the end to my journey is getting closer each year and the light at the end shines most principally in my dreams. So I will sing of spiritual things from my dreams.

THE CAGED BIRD´S SONG

(By: Karla Wagener)

It´s so hard to begin to sing.

If I could just start, I know I could get

To the innermost part

Of a broken heart.

 

It surely would heal.

Something good would come out

Of the hurt deep within

And help all that pain logout.

 

When I look in your eyes

I see your great pain.

I just don´t know

If I could help it refrane.

 

Love´d to break you

Out of your chains.

Show you other, better roads

To the promised land and plains.

 

See you free, to be

The best of all you can glitter forth in glee.

BLESSED THANKSGIVING!

 

A THANKSGIVING STORY IN ARGENTINA

(Written by Karla Wagener on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 2020.)

It is often said, ¨The richest is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs least¨.

Even in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, Ruby was happy.  She had everything she needed, everything she wanted.  She had a home! When her owners had taken her back to Buenos Aires to the City she dug her claws in the pavement and resisted wholeheartedly to being taken back into that small one bedroom apartment far from their country getaway in Colon, Province of Entre Rios.

Ten days passed by and she was so excited when suitcases were placed neatly at the door.  She knew she was again going to the tourist town getaway where there was open, fresh air, trees and vegetation, horses grazing on empty lots, birds to chase and many dog friends to play with.  Ruby sat right down next to the bags and packages and did not more a hair!  She was not to be left behind.  She would make sure of that.

After a three hour trip in car she was back in the countryside.  She was happier than ever.  She spent her days relaxed; eating luscious food, cookouts, BONES, fresh chicken, fish from the river. She especially loved fish! Entre Rios had a great abundance of delicious meats, but no turkey was to be found.  Ruby´s owners nicknamed her ¨Fly biter¨, because she snapped at all the flies as they whizzed by.  She did not think it was funny.  She hated the buzzing creatures.  She couldn´t tolerate their noise or brisk movements.

They all stayed in the country getaway for a month or so and just the day before they were to return to Buenos Aires it was announced there would be a lockdown because of a terrible virus that was threatening the whole world.  Ruby was probably the only one who was relieved she would be stuck in the countryside, away from pollution, car jams, noise, strikes and contagion.  People could keep their desire for all that.  She wanted nothing to do with it. Here she was free to bark at the many birds in the yard, and snap at those bothersome flies, eating some of them to spite them. 

Ruby remembered back to that one bedroom apartment.  Her owner used to yell and complain, ¨We´ve got to get rid of that dirty little dog.  There are hairs all over.  I am allergic.  It is bad for me.  She has got to go¨. Ruby lived in terror.  What would her future be?  Would they really undo her life?  Was she to blame for the hairs and mess? She did her necessities out on the hot street.  She tried to be good.  She obeyed every order, ¨sit¨, ¨jump¨, ¨go in¨, ¨lie down¨.  She had been adopted by a part American family so she was bilingual.  The mother and two children had come from the United States and they celebrated Thanksgiving every year as a very beloved tradition. This year was quite distinct and unusual.

Here she was in Colon on Thanksgiving Day, 2020, still in lockdown.  Diego Maradona died the day before at 60 years old on the 25^th, the same day as Fidel Castro who he cherished so much.  Fidel died in 2016.  Thanksgiving happened to fall on Ruby´s owner´s birthday this year, and also on the birthday of Lucas´ father and Ro.  Ruby was very unaware of all that. 

It seems there were more than 30 blocks of bereaved people waiting in front of the Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires to give their last respects to Diego.  Despite everything, Ro made a nice nuclear family celebration for his birthday because of the Pandemic. Usually, he invited tons of relatives.  He was the husband of Fiorella, the niece of Ruby´s master´s ex-student. Lucas was another ex-student and these relationships were nurtured in spite of many years passing.  Students often admire their teachers and look up to them. This was a year to celebrate because Thanksgiving doesn´t always fall on the 26^th of November, with so many birthdays to celebrate at the same time.  The best they could do would have to do!

Ruby´s masters were now retired and they all lived a new life.  Stresses had been minimized. Still, the husband complained, ¨That dog sheds so many hairs. She is so dirty.  She smells.¨ He complained but at the same time he took Ruby with him everywhere he went, to buy tools, for food, or articles to fix the cabin.  It was almost impossible not to take her.  Ruby knew immediately when it was time to go.  She sensed it. 

Ruby was aware of every move the husband made, if he got up, put on his shoes, grabbed for the keys. She would begin to whimper and pounce about.  She didn´t bark because she understood that when she barked she had to stay home.  She did everything she could to please her owners.  There was nothing she could do about her fur and all the hairs that collected under the furniture, and it worried her so much!

When the husband took her to do chores he always stopped at the park to let her run around, sniff the plants, do her necessities and play in the fountain.  He usually threw sticks, especially when they stopped by the riverside. Ruby chased them. Everybody who saw it laughed at her as she hesitated to get the stick out of deep water.  She would turn away and hesitate and then attempt again until she could reach the stick and fulfill her objective.  She was very determined and she did everything she could to please her owner’s so that they would not give her away.

Meanwhile, in Buenos Aires, the multitudes made huge disturbances, the police shot off rubber bullets and made blockades.  There were fireworks, dancing, singing and all kinds of noise, celebration, etc. concerning Diego's wake. Ruby was not concerned but the husband remembered Diego, how he had been in the neighborhood near their house, how he had gone to meet his cousin's father and the father cried when he tried to tell Diego what a great, the best, soccer player he was.  Norberto (Pappo's) father cried every time he tried to talk because he was so emotional.  But that had happened many years ago when Diego was still a boy, playing in Argentino Juniors and Pappo was a well-known Rock guitarist.  Ruby hadn’t been around yet.  She never met Diego or Pappo.

Ruby's other owner, the wife, had met Diego's sisters in the neighborhood.  The wife wrote poems and lyrics to songs.  She asked the sisters to give a few of them to Diego, especially one called ¨Deepfelt Song" (Canto Profundo), which she wrote on Diego's birthday in 2005 in Spanish. She let them all know she thought about them and prayed for them.  The wife admired all the passion caused by a soccer player, but secretly felt the World could be made better when such great passion was concentrated on fixing problems. 

What did all that matter now?  Ruby was worried she would be given away.  The wife read that it was possible to control the fur from shedding and scattering about by giving the dog regular baths with vigorous brushings.  Ruby was afraid of water so she tried to escape when she sensed she was about to be given a bath. The wife caught her and dragged her to the hose, watered her down, scrubbed her well and brushed her thoroughly. Ruby got quite accustomed to the brushing and eventually lost her fear of water.

Needless to say, Diego would never want there to be social disturbance and decontrol on his last good-bye, particularly not in a Pandemic, and Ruby would never be so thankful as this Thanksgiving when she heard in the prayers at the delicious meal…

¨Of course, I was just joking around.  Ruby is the best thing that has happened to us in all these difficult years that have passed.  Now we can enjoy and savor life and Ruby is an important part of it all. I must declare, this cookout is really delicious even if it is not turkey and we must be thankful we will be able to celebrate appropriately when the kids can come and it is safe to gather again.¨ The kids (really adult ones) were to bring a turkey from Buenos Aires when they were allowed to travel. Entre Rios had the best meat, chicken, fish, and especially pork, but no turkey was to be found!

¨Of course¨, Ruby thought as she chewed a delicious, juicy bone, ¨He can say that because he is the Argentine of the family. The others know how necessary a good turkey is on  Thanksgiving¨!

 

Sing until the end!!!

 

La siguiente canción la escribí por causalidad en el cumpleaños de Diego Maradona.  Ese día Pascual me decía que a Él lo que le importaba era el Jesús que decía que venía a traer la espada.  Me inspiro y salió la canción.  A mí no me cerraba que Jesús trae la espada solo.  Después de un tiempito agregue "y la Gracia". A principios no sonaba la música y después me di cuenta que tenía música.  Mi amiga, Myriam puso los acordes para tocarla.  Había que cambiar algunas palabras para que encaje con la música.

Que vivo en el barrio del Paternal, conozco a las hermanas de Diego, y pase la canción a Él por ellas es todo otra historia…                                           

                                                                   30 de Octubre, 2005

CANTO PROFUNDO

 

Quiero cantarte una canción,

Pero no sé si escuchas,

Las plegarias de mi alma,

Y Las promesas que Dios Nos da.

 

Es una canción muy humilde,

Profunda de mi interior,

Que dice algo nuevo,

Sentido con mucho fulgor.

 

Canta, canta el alma dolorida.

Canta y canta más allá del temor.

Canta y canta el alma reprimida.

Canta de futuro y del amor.

 

 Me muero un poquito si no escuchas,

La Misericordia una necesidad…

El canto profundo de mi alma

Por todo lo que Dios nos da.

 

He venido a traer la espada y la Gracia

Para los pobres de alma.

He venido a traer algo nuevo…

He venido a cantar una nueva canción.

 

Canta, canta el alma dolorida…

 

POR: KARLA WAGENER

 

 

GO WATCH!

 

SENTINEL

(By: Karla Wagener on November 21, 2020

How not to love him?

With that mischievous adolescent smile,

The warmth of a tender touch deep inside,

Bright shining eyes…

 

How not to need him?

Energetic responses,

Altruistic expectations,

 

Passion, projects,

Profound meaning,

All wrapped up

In Good advice!

The best prevention

From disaster!