I have a song to sing-o!
You do?
Well, not exactly, but I do have a story.
So many.
Here we go.
Many years ago, (and many of you have heard an alternate version of this) I was attacked, as in majorly beaten up in Central Park, by a group of hoodlums. I was EMS’d to a hospital where many’things’ were done to fix me but all I wanted was to GO HOME.
Home?
Where was home?
A beautiful 4th floor walk up in a brownstone where I was hand to mouth existing, doing energy work, supporting my two daughters that were in college and living with JULIUS…my golden retriever.
Julius had been born on the third floor of our funky green house by the sea in South Carolina and had been my best friend through the trials and tribulations of mothering my girls, following my dreams, facing dragons and meeting angels in every size and shape imagineable….he was my partner.
And now all I wanted was to GO HOME and be with him.
After surgeries, etc, my ‘release’ was offered, but only on the condition that there would be someone at home to care for me. “Of course there is” said I….Julius Lora. He will tend to my every need.
So why this story now?
Wait, wait, I’m not done.
As a puppy, Julius had broken his leg, right before the onset of Hurricane Hugo. With running, escaping, and being unsettled for months, his hip joint was destroyed and he needed a hip replacement. As this was ‘put in’ before he was fully grown, it popped out randomly for the rest of his life, with excruciating pain, expecially as he got older. Our 4th floor walk up was hard on him and I promised him that one day we would sit, like Ferdinand, in a meadow and sniff the flowers.
After my year of counseling 9/11 women, Julius and I headed west, stopping in Boulder, Colorado, as he was not feeling well. Meadows and mountains everywhere.
Julius and I sat on a rock together for weeks and then he left….up and out.
On February 5th.
Yes, that is why I am telling this story today. This was our last day together on the earth, and today? An absolutely beautiful one and he lives forever….as everyone who knows who has experienced such love, in my heart.
I am sharing this with you all as a reminder that love lives and grows and companions and makes the heart smile forever and ever amen.
It is our job to grab this knowing and THANK GOD for life…as humans…on earth….now.
And bless our furry loves.