“Therefore I say that man must travel in the way of God. Day by day he must endeavor to become better . . .”*
When I drive my car into the garage to park I align my right headlight on Max’s right paw. That leaves just enough room for me to get out on the right side and my husband’s car to get in on the left side. But I’m ahead of myself . . .
We live in a small 3 bedroom home – The bedroom I use for my home office has glass french doors that open to the hall way.
I looked everywhere for a screen to put up blocking the view into the room for when guests stayed. It had to be 4 panels wide and extra high for privacy. My father would tackle anything. So years before we adopted Max, Dad made the screen to my specifications (with the exception of the frame’s legs not being quite the same height and needing a bit of propping.
The screen’s frame stayed folded up in the garage for many years until I decided to cover it with canvas. It stayed folded up in the garage for several more years until I decided to paint Max’s picture on it.
It stayed folded up in the garage for several more years until I lightly penciled in (which you can’t see in the pictures) some corrections to his anatomy, his fluffy facial hair, and planned to create some interest around the outside edge. There it stayed folded up in the garage.
A few months ago I drive in to find the unfinished screen blocking the view of garage “stuff”. My husband had been decorating. At first, I’m disturbed. Max lost all his fluffy facial & body hair before he passed. The picture I’d not finished was a reminder of the last painful month of Max’s life.
Now it turns out my husband is a great decorator, who knew. When I drive in or drive out I can smile at the silly picture I started years ago.
I’ve decided not to “finish” the screen painting – It will remain a work in progress, just like Max, to remind me every time I travel, driving in and driving out, we are all eternal works in progress.
*The full Baha’i quote:
“Therefore I say that man must travel in the way of God. Day by day he must endeavor to become better, his belief must increase and become firmer, his good qualities and his turning to God must be greater, the fire of his love must flame more brightly; then day by day he will make progress, for to stop advancing is the means of going back. The bird when he flies soars ever higher and higher, for as soon as he stops flying he will come down. Every day, in the morning”. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on the Journey of the Soul
If you missed the chapters I’ve written to date about Max here are the links (they need to be read in order):
Prologue & Epilogue Chapter 1 – Instincts Rule Chapter 2 – Love at First Lick Chapter 3 – Chewsing Heaven Chapter 4 – Unleashed Chapter 5 – Our Little Angel Chapter 6 – Favorite Flavors, Patience & Self Control Chapter 7 – Love has No Bounds
Okay, you paid me back for every bloody haiku that I have written. This post just put me over the edge. I’m crying like crazy but you are not to blame (well just a tiny bit) you were only the catalyst. I’ve had a long and shitty day.News of an 8 month old innocent child dying of a rare disease,(he died last night) then a very disturbing announcement about one of my son’s classmates and people texting me for details (YUCK). and they are texting my son as well just out of curiosity. I baked something special for my son and it dropped on the floor shattering a plate and now I cannot give it to him because there is glass everywhere on the floor and in the cake. The only good thing that happened to me was when I was almost fainting (again) Lexi came to my side. That’s the good thing? Yup.Oh and to add insult to injury we’re getting another winter storm that could be up to two feet of snow on Friday night. Tomorrow has to be better, it can’t be worse. I’ m being positive. Love, Peachy Keen, JR ps I miss Max too.
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Laurie, Peach,
Max would lick your tears. It was his nature. I preferred to think that when he licked my tears it was out of compassion, not a craving for salt.
I so hope and pray that tomorrow is better than today for you.
with love,
j
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