to whom it may concern

To Whom It May Concern In The Underworld:

I am writing to you today after my repeated verbal requests, that I am currently not in need of your services, have apparently fallen in deaf ears.  Please remove my name, phone number and address from your call list as I am very happy with my current provider Jesus Christ.

While I appreciate your attempts in recent weeks, trying to prove to me that my current provider is unreliable, you have failed to convince me.  I know you were behind the broken patio door, broken garage door, broken coffee pot, favorite broken coffee mug, clogged drain resulting in a river on my basement floor, lost drivers license and walking into a door resulting in a goose egg and cut on my forehead while looking for said lost drivers license, expired library card and standing in line for fifteen minutes to renew it only to find out I could not check out my selection of Christian literature because of unknown library fines. I happy to report that after much ado all overdue fees have been paid and said reading material was able to follow me home.  I also feel I must thank you for the opportunity to stand in line for an entire morning at the DMV, the owner and CEO of my current provider, Jesus himself kept me company and we enjoyed a very pleasant morning in each others company, and I also met a new Jesus lovin friend, the goose egg has reduced in swelling and my cut is healing quite nicely, thank you for asking.

While I further appreciate your efforts woo my business away from your competitor with your promises of worldly wealth and material goods, I feel I must direct your attention to your proven track record of lies and deceit, your reputation of destruction starting with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden precedes you. May I also point out that at one time you held quite the coveted primo position within the company of my current provider and now your competitor, that is until your selfish pride got the best of you, I wouldn’t exactly advertise that on your flyers and business cards. May I also say that I heard you were really quite beautiful back in the day, what happened?  If you don’t mind me making a suggestion perhaps a facial and a little waxing, it only hurts for a moment, but that should be no problem for you, as pain and destruction are your specialty.

In regards to my repeated requests for an instructional manual, apparently the postal service needs some restructuring as I keep hearing the promise that it is in the mail however it never arrives, do you even have an instruction manual?  If you don’t mind me saying so my current provider has had the same one for over 2000 years and every promise in it has been kept, it can be found in just about any bookstore and there is no other book in print that has come close to rivaling its best seller status, not to mention that the mere sight of it warms my heart.   References of proven customer satisfaction on your behalf have also become a little sketchy, apparently those customers have become unavoidably detained, which makes me wonder what they have been unavoidably detained doing.

You have taken enough of my time today and in recent weeks, it is a little chilly on the outdoors today, however, the sun is shining and I plan to take a spin through the woods and get my praise on. If you insist on following me you will only be hurting yourself as I have been told by many that my singing can wake the bears from hibernation, however since it fills my heart with gladness and joy and I am told that it is music to my Fathers ears I am plan to do it loud, proud and for a very long time.  So I ask that you pack your truck with your baggage of lies and deceit, put this girl in your rearview mirror and drive away, I will not be moved and you are not welcome here. It is In Him I serve.

Signed,

A Daughter of the King

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

whitney was here

My Whitney was here, and now she is not, we said our goodbyes this morning around eleven o’clock, and I am going to miss her.  My heart hurts and my eyes are swollen from the tears, but I am at peace in knowing that she will no longer feel the pain that had laid claim on her back legs and she will no longer labor to breath in the frigid Wisconsin cold. I will somehow find a way to go to sleep tonight without the lull of her snoring as she lay alongside my bed, there will be no more 5:00 a.m. wake up calls with her cool wet nose pressing against my face telling me it is time to get up, there is a new day to conquer.  It is eerily quiet as I type this, no clicking on the floor of her nails as she comes to find me to let her outside, or tell me that is time for her afternoon sustenance.  There is no murmur of her breath as she lay beside my chair as I write this post, there is just silence, but there is also peace. Peace as I envision her running down the streets of gold in search of the nearest watering hole waiting for all of those who have preceded her to throw her ball for her, she will no longer feel the pain that suddenly seemed to wrack her body in recent days as she glides through the water.

As her heart began to slow the Doctor quickly grabbed my hand and lay it over the quivering parts of her body telling me that she is meeting God right now.  I lay on the blanket of the floor in the Doctor’s office with her long after she had gone, her cheeks beginning to sink, so I get up and cover her body with the knitted blanket we lay on together and quietly leave the room, I don’t want to remember her that way.  I want to remember the sweet girl who would strain at her leash and excitedly dance around when she saw the all too familiar swimming hole we would frequent dashing off the moment I unhooked her leash, I want to remember the girl who would romp through the woods with reckless abandon taking in all the smells, I want to remember the girl who would make a bed out of all the shoes in my closet or scatter my clean clothes around the house because I lazily left the laundry basket on the floor.  Eventually her things will be put away and the dog hair vacuumed up and I will no longer have clothes laced with drool and dog schnoz.  There will be no more mud prints to mop up after rainy days, and I will have to learn how to go on without her, but I will go on. 

There will be a day when I will get to go for walks with her again, and throw her ball and pet her brillo pad fur.  We will meet again someday, on the streets of the gold, with the music of angels, when we will no longer taste the harshness of the realities of this fallen world we live in. When it is time for me too to go home, I envision her sitting at the gates waiting for me with her tail wagging and a ball in her mouth excitedly running to greet me and show me all the places she has been running and swimming, and this time there will be no goodbyes.

Rest in peace my sweet girl, I love you.

During one of our last walks together at our favorite place.

love lessons

The best lessons I learned about love were taught to me by my dog, its true, a lot can be said about the love of our pets.  I have a thirteen year old Chesapeake Bay retriever named Whitney who tops the scales these days at 95 pounds, yet she does not know this, many times my legs almost buckling under me when she tries to relive her glory days and curl up in my lap.  Despite my shortcomings and many flaws she loves me anyway, when the humidity level outside is registering 90% and my hair resembles that of an overcooked crinkle fry, she loves me, when my hormones woke up on different sides of the bed that day, I mysteriously gained ten pounds during the night and I am having an all around “I feel ugly” day, it escapes her unnoticed as she is still waiting by door when I get home, tail wagging, letting out a near window shattering bark when I take too long getting in the house, anxiously awaiting her welcome home rub down and nuzzling my neck and hair leaving me sopping wet from drool. She is excited to see me even when I am not excited to be me on that particular day, she listens and doesn’t respond when I need to talk, she just lays at my feet and listens, almost as if by instinct lifting her tired old bones off the floor that sometimes don’t always work properly anymore to rest her head in my lap when I need an extra hug at that particular moment, she doesn’t give my favorite pair of paint stained jogging pants a second glance, she doesn’t care that I don’t wear a size 2 and that I am not a fan of hair and makeup and I try to do it as little as possible, she isn’t embarrassed to be seen with me on our daily walks, at times my hair uncombed and my bare face freshly scrubbed and starting to show signs of its age, she doesn’t care what I look like or how I am dressed she is just happy to be taking a walk with me, never once asking me if I am really going to leave the house looking like that. 

Whitney loves everyone and everyone loves Whitney, well not everyone, if you are not a large dog type of person you will not like Whitney, a little scratch on her ears and she is your friend forever, when Whitney is done you will find yourself bathed in drool and wearing a new fur coat. She never holds a grudge and is all too willing to forgive with just a simple good old fashioned belly rub.  My Whitney will love you, despite every flaw and shortcoming, she doesn’t care whether you are short or tall thin or heavy where you live or what your income is, she will love you.  May we all walk in love like this.

We were created in love, by the One who is love, we are beautiful in God's eyes just as we are.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 tells it this way:  Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes always perseveres.

My sweet girl who will always love you.

For your listening pleasure today is Francesca Battistelli, Beautiful Beautiful.
Francesca Battistelli - Beautiful Beautiful