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!