Notes for the Week 13th Sunday after Pentecost September 8 2019

PHOEBE
9/29/13 – 9/4/19

Isaiah said God would be with us no matter the depth of the rivers, the swiftness of the rivers or the heat of the fire. With God with us, we are able to face anything. (43:2) Phoebe wasn’t afraid of any of these things, so maybe she knew more about God than I realized. I’m pretty sure all dogs know about the great Creator of all things. Probably better than we humans do.

Owning a dog is a little like playing God or having the opportunity to glimpse a little of what God recognizes as pure faith and absolute trust. We are presented with these opportunities in countless ways. I know now, that I was chosen by God to give Phoebe someone to love and trust for as

long as required. I was chosen to give her someone in whom she could have complete faith. That was God’s call to me for Phoebe. Now I know how God must feel when God receives that from us.

Phoebe was chosen to enter into my life in order for me to learn the meaning of loving and welcome sacrifice. She led me down paths of beauty, curiosity and frustration, adventure and danger, sweet respite and absolute chaos. She taught me how to hold on to a brave, fearless heart, even when frightened, as well as preserving some perennial innocence, even when in danger of becoming too cynical for it.

Marginalized by society because of her fear of strangers and her conflicted understanding of friend versus foe, Phoebe ultimately came face to face with worldly demands on all non-humans for a particular way of being. The demands were too onerous for one so sweet…..and far too human.
She spent her last morning taking a stroll around the garden, continuing her work on digging a trench for the garden rake, and discovering, for the first time, that she enjoyed eating cherry tomatoes directly off the vine. I hope my last day will be spent in the same way…enjoying favorite things, taking care of business and discovering something new.

So now….run free sweet girl. Run free…..through the heavenly fields of unconditional love…through water wherever you find it, muddy or not…..through the fresh scent of acceptance and total freedom. No more need to fear.

Jesus was right when he taught us to love the downtrodden, the misunderstood and the marginalized. Over the years of my life, I have met and deeply loved many people who were deemed outcasts and sinners by society.

And one dog.

We journey together,
Mother Esme+
“Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, and your faithfulness to the clouds….”
Psalm 36:5