Daddy
You held my hand and showed me the wonder of the world
how blue the sky was, how fun it was to swing SO HIGH
You held my hand when no one else was there
and made me feel ok with the decision i had to make.
You held my hand when I got married
and made sure I didn’t fall when I almost fainted
You held my hand when we gave mom’s ashes to the sea
on the way to Alaska, where you two had planned to go.
You held my hand as a peace came over you
as you breathed you last breath and your hand slipped from mine.
for Ralph 1935 – 1999
Gray Man
At this time of year when we celebrate our family and a season of love, we sometimes forget those who can not speak. Although we love them, those silent members, there is for some, no love at all.
Such was the life of Gray Man.
Yule, the Winter Solstice, a time when the light and the dark are at equal measure. When the Dark King dies and the Sun King is reborn and light and life begin again.
Gray Man left the world this day, shown love and a kind hand for the first and the last time.
He lived a wild and free life the neighbors said “whats wrong with that”? But then,
they are the reason he knew no love and was wanted by none. Left as some cats and dogs are, outside, to fend for themselves. Left to the elements, cars, and for some to be tormented or killed by people just because. To dig in garbage cans for food, to breed and produce MORE unwanted little lives. YES they are lives, as precious and divine as our own, created by that divine power just as we were. And I believe if that power could speak to us now……we would hear a deafening ROAR!
Of pain and sadness and betrayal. A life, a precious Gift, disregarded and abused by the spoiled human child. We were given dominion over the animals some say….then doesn’t that make US responsible for those lives over which we have dominion?
How can this happen? How can we ever justify the mistreatment of creatures who we have taken and domesticated, who we have made dependent upon us for their survival. Can we claim ignorance, or is it just plain laziness when we fail in our divine given responsibility. When we refuse, for what ever reason to spay and neuter, and to just plain take care of them?
I can say that if today, I were the divine I would give the spoiled human child NO MORE gifts. Not even a lump of coal to stay warm or a kind word to warm the heart.