Best In Show(ing UP)

This past Wednesday afternoon

there was a small gathering of staff in the Atrium

at David Simpson House House on

East 185th Street

to celebrate a very important

Member of the Hospice Staff

Tallulah

She’s been a therapy dog at The House for the past seven years

and it would be impossible to try to calculate

just how many lives—

patients.    .    .

families.    .    .

staff.       .        .

Tallulah has not just touched

but inspired—

patients.     .     .

families.     .     .

staff.       .        .

to also reach out and

T       O       U       C       H

We all gathered together

and surrounded her in a-not-so-perfect

c            i            r           c           l          e

and while Tallulah was in the center

chewing on a treat

Dr. Kevin Dieter

led us in a unison reading,

TO   LEARN FROM ANIMAL BEING:

Nearer to the earth’s heart, Deeper within its silence; Animals know this world in a way we never will.

We who are ever Distanced and distracted by the parade of bright windows thought opens; their seamless presence is not fractured thus.

Stranded between time gone and time emerging, we managed seldom to be where we are: Whereas they are always looking out from the here and now.

May we learn to return and rest in the beauty of animal being, Learn to lean low, leave our locked minds, and with freed senses feel the earth breathing with us.

May we enter into lightness of spirit, and slip frequently into the feel of the wild.

Let the clear silence of our animal being; cleanse our hearts of corrosive words.

May we learn to walk upon the earth with all their confidence and clear-eyed stillness so that our minds might be baptized in the name of the wind and the light and the rain.      

One   by   One

 each of us

by instinct

rather  than  instruction

left the circle and went into the middle

and gave her our own

little blessing that only

a heart can shout

and a mouth can’t begin to whisper

.          .          .I stood there and noticed

that eyes were weeping

what tissues can’t ever quite absorb

and chose not to think it was some kind of a

meaningful, sincere

G    O   O   D       B   Y   E

as a much more

intentional

devout

T H A N K    Y O U

Tallulah

was making her last visit to the House

but not giving us her

Final Lesson.       .       .

Her Last Lecture

if we are Student enough to

l e a r n:

J      u      s      t

S H O W I N G    U P 

B   E   I   N   G      P   R   E   S   E   N   T

brings a

h   e   a   l   i  n  g

not found in an

intervention

therapy

prescription

plan of care

I V

syringe

pill

capsule

s a l v e.       .       .

And like her.     .     .

makes us the

BEST    IN    SHOW

Willie Morris wrote a book called

MY  DOG  SKIP

The Family Movie came out in 2000

As I was standing in that most sacred-imperfect Circle

the ending scene came to mind:

https://youtu.be/nLKMroK2bA0

Good Bye?

THANK  YOU?

For now

and

for an ever

May the Peace that

Tallulah

has brought to many

now be that

Profound Peace

she’ll  enjoy

f o r e v e r m o r e

as she crosses over

The Rainbow Bridge

but never out of our hearts.