Beginnings and Endings

I've been writing my "tails" for a year and all of a sudden it all just dried up. I ran out of words and even though I try so hard to have all the answers, suddenly I just couldn't find them. I always search for the bright side and over the past few months it's been hard for me to do that.

Last night Meme watched a movie that made her cry. She realized that the only thing that has made her cry lately had to do with animals. I guess she's really sensitive about us because she thinks we're helpless. This isn't completely true, of course, but she's right about one thing ... we are dependant on the humans who look after us; we trust the people we love and we have no control over what we do, where we go, even what we eat.

I couldn't believe how hard she cried watching "Marley and Me". She read the book, everyone knows how it ends. But she cried so hard that I didn't know what to do!! Everything in life has a beginning and an end. It's all the joy we feel before the end that counts, but it's easy to forget that when the final door closes. And none of us really knows for sure what lies beyond. We only know that the day comes we have to say goodbye, one of the hardest things there is to do in this life.

It's even harder when it doesn't make any sense at all. Last week, not far from here, 21 horses who should still running through the fields in Wellington died for no reason at all. They fell through no fault of their own, just a terrible mix-up in a pharmacy lab. Twenty one magnificent polo horses, loved by so many, ready for a polo match one glorious, sunny afternoon died just because of one mistake. And all we can hope is that something is done so nothing like that ever happens again. It's sad to know that sometimes only from tragedy comes reform, a tragic loss reminds us that just a split second decision, a look away, can alter life and it's just never quite the same again. Meme never knew those horses, but she cried for every one of them.

Two beautiful white Samoans belonging to a man Meme never knew on the other side of the ocean died within days of each other leaving their humans heartsick and Meme in tears.

I've been lucky in my life and have only lost a cat. She never wanted to have anything to do with me anyway. Still, when Meme went out the door with her one day, all wrapped in a towel, I just knew something bad was happening. Meme came home without her and as much of a pain as that cat was for me, I really miss her. She was my friend, she kept me company when no one was home. She was there when I first came to live here and suddenly she was gone.

Beginnings and endings .... why do we need to go through this? Meme says "to everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven". I guess she forgot that for a minute watching "Marley and Me" last night. Life is really about the joy we experience with each passing day, the happiest moments that start at the beginning and go all the way through until the end. And that's why people love their animals, and we love our people. Because no matter how sad it is to lose someone, all the happiness in between makes it worth the pain.

It's really the filling in the sandwich that counts. If there's no filling, then there's no point in having it at all. And forever and ever we have the memories to cherish and remember with laughter and smiles. I know the chances are I'll leave this earth before Meme and Poppy. I hear them talk about it and how sad they're going to feel. It will be much easier for me if I go first.

All I know is that from the beginning of my life I have been happy most of the time (not counting that teeth cleaning episode and being abandoned a couple of times). And when my time's up, I won't be thinking about any of the ugly things in this world. I'll slide down that slide to the great beyond knowing that my sandwich was filled with some pretty good stuff.

It's not about the bread, it's what's in between that counts.

'Til next time,

Molly

Remembering Sammie...