The Treasure Hunt

Monday September 3, 2012 7:45 am

For the last two hours I have sat and watched a small flashing icon on my computer screen mock me. I awoke shortly after five with an idea of something to write. However, every time I started to write a few words I changed my mind and would delete what I had just written. (I had thought about writing my blog this morning built around a Bob Marley quote, then I thought it was too "heavy” for this day and this blog: instead, I will now write a few thoughts about love, friendship, joys, sorrows, dogs... and this time of year.)

I always think of Labor Day as my own “official” start to my favorite season of the year... fall! I know that most people recognize this day as the end of summer... but for me it is the beginning of that special time of year! (The first string of cool mornings, leaves beginning to change color and fall to the ground, being held up in traffic by school buses: all of these things and a hundred more show me that this season is upon us!)

It is the time of year when my heart and mind is full of memories of things past, and hopes and dreams of the future. For me it is that magical time of year when all things seem possible... even if in reality they are not.

It is the season where I had my greatest joys... and greatest heartbreak: yet, even though that is true I still love and look forward to this time of year. I think it's because I realize that is what life is really: life is seasons of joy and heartbreak. And while it is true that I hate the heartbreak side of life, without that how could one really know the sheer joys in life. I mean, it would be impossible to recognize the view from the top of a mountain unless you had also seen the valley.

Fall, for me, is that encapsulated span of time: from blustery winds to the beginning of heavy snows and icy cold air, and that is usually no more than a few weeks time... yet, life can change so very quickly! I suppose that is why I consider this time of year to be magical and even yet today I think of it as rife with possibilities.

So, on this Labor Day... and especially for those fortunate few who do not have to work: surround yourself with those whom you love best and just hold on. For you see, friends and people you love are the only ones that can go with you beyond death. (Other than immediate family, I have, by choice(?) four friends. I know for most people, and especially in this day of hundreds of FB “friends” that might sound like an impossibly small number... but I think it is because I count friendship as something more than some people must.)

Few people who know me, even those who know me fairly well, would be able to accurately name the three people in life I count as my true friends. It is because I am “friendly” with many people and would always be ready to offer support to any of them if they needed it? But, the difference between being friendly to someone and counting them as my friend is more than the difference between night and day. I believe that friendship, like love, is something that is more thrust upon us rather than being sought? If that is true... then there is still the possibility of more friends in my life depending upon whomever God might send for me to meet.

I don't necessarily like talking about friendship, love, and dogs in the same blog... except for the fact that one of my true friends in life happens to have four legs. My other three friends...  two girls and one guy are of the human variety. (lol) Anyway, maybe I can explain by using an example of a dog what I mean about "true love" not being something we have to seek... it finds us.

One day in Hurricane I came out of church and saw a big red dog lying on the sidewalk. I leaned down and stroked his face and said a few words to him and then I started walking home. We lived just a block away. He followed me home. Hours later when I started to leave my house he had been lying by my front door and he followed me back. This went on for days.

At that time we already had a dog and I didn't think I could keep him. Many people at church had seen how he followed me everywhere and they thought it was something how it just seemed like he had "adopted" me. Because of that it was easy for me to find him a home for him as many people now wanted him. There was a girl, .... ...... who I decided could give him a great home, and she lived miles away in the country. This big red dog, on three separate occasions broke away from their yard and traveled all the way back to my house and would stretch out by my front door... waiting for me.

At that time I didn't understand what I do today about love... I hadn't yet learned two very important lessons: those would come later. Other than being nice to him I hadn't shown him any special attention: yet, he wanted to be with me. I asked .... to chain him as that seemed the only way to be able for her to keep him. Today I would have never done that, for I would recognize that, for whatever reason, he had "chosen" me and I would keep and take care of him until he died. Now it makes me sad just to think of how I turned him away: even though .... had given him a very good home.  

You see, I hadn't yet learned two of my life's most important lessons. First, at that time I did not know that you could feel great love without being loved, and secondly, that affairs of the heart are not always of our own choosing. (Maybe the big red dog, upon first seeing me, had simply seen something in me that he alone saw, and that caused him to want to be with me above any other? I'll never know for certain, but I do know that life can change with but a single glance... and in an instant of time!)   

James Lecesne wrote one of the best statements ever about friendship: or at least this is how I think of my three human, and one furry friend. He said, "This is how it works. I love the people in my life, and I do for my friends whatever they need me to do for them, again and again, as many times as is necessary. For example, in your case you always forgot who you are and how much you're loved. So what I do for you as your friend is remind you who you are and tell you how much I love you. And this isn't any kind of burden for me, because I love who you are very much. Every time I remind you, I get to remember with you, which is my pleasure." 

I hope (and pray) that any who reads this has a great holiday today!!!