Ring ring ring…
Hello?
Hi.
There’s more to the Julius story…there’s an ‘after’ which is also a beginning. May I?
Alright… go.
One year and 9 days after Julius lifted up and out (which takes us to Valentinei’s Day) another puppy was born on a ranch in Colorado. His owners were fancy and his father was a blue ribbon winner at the Westminster Dog Show in NYC. All of this puppy’s brothers and sisters were sold, but he was saved because he was so beautiful that he was to be THE ONE to follow in his father’s footsteps to The Westminster.
The prize winning color for golden retirevers is specifically the color of a copper penny, but alas, this puppy’s fur grew lighter and lighter as weeks passed and he would not be a contender after all.
Julius’ mother (that would be I) had taken a year and several months to be still with Julius’s passing, but on one Sunday morning in May (Mother’s Day, to be exact) she rode out to the golden puppy ranch to see who she saw. There were brand new puppies and month old puppies tumbling and lolling about…each one stunningly adorable…but no….not yet.
And then, just as she was leaving, a larger baby, three months old, sitting by himself and watching her, beckoned to her with his eyes. She knelt down, nose to nose and said “Who are you?” and from behind the owner explained the ‘disappointing’ history on this one’s showing future.
We all know what happened next….love at first sight and soul recognition swirled into one and the next chapter was already in motion.
For the next few days, names were floating in and out of mind, and in the meantime, “Sweetie, Darling, Angel” were standins, to which there was no particular response, but every once in awhile, a s-l-i-p and “Julius” was spoken and each time there was an immediate unmistakeable reaction.
The mysteries of life, here and there, and surrender.
BUT it is important for each of us to live our present and be who we are in the now….and so yes…perhaps perhaps Oberon was Julius, but nevermind.
Obie, BELOVED for the next 11 years, in his most glorious beauty….a teacher, was the anchor, the liferaft, the grounding force in a saga that only an elder mystic could endure with such grace….and that is another story.
And now? Two darlings, or maybe one? Romping about in heavenly meadows, but I must look twice at every golden that smiles at me.