Grief Counselors
A sick man turned to his doctor, as he was preparing to leave the examination
room and said, "Doctor, I am afraid to die.
Tell me what lies on the other side." Very quietly, the doctor said, "I don't
know." "You don't know? You, a Christian man,
do not know what is on the other side?"
The doctor was holding the handle of the door; on the
other side of which came a sound of scratching and whining, and as
he opened the door, a dog sprang into the room and leaped on him with an eager
show of gladness.
Turning to the patient, the doctor said, "Did you notice
my dog? He's never been in this room before. He didn't know what
was inside. He knew nothing except that his master was here, and when the door
opened, he sprang in without fear.
I know little of what is on the other side of death, but I do know one thing...
I know my Master is there and that
is enough."
I am standing on the seashore.
A ship sails and spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.
She is an object of beauty and I stand watching her "til at last, she fades on the horizon.
And someone at my side says, "She is gone."
Gone where?
Gone from my sight, that is all.
She is just as large in the masts, hull and spars as she was when I saw her.
And just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination.
The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not her;
and just at the moment when someone at my side says, "She is gone,"
There are others who are watching her coming and other voices take up a glad shout
"There she comes!"
and that is DYING.
DEATH is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away to the next room.
I am me and you are you, whatever we were to each other we are that still.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever a household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effort, without the ghost of a shadow in it.
Life means more than it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute unbroken continuity...
Why should I be out of your mind because I am out of your sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval somewhere, very near, just around the corner.
All is well.
---Henry Scott Holland
May I Go?
May I go now? Do you think the time is right? May I say goodbye to pain filled days and endless lonely nights? I've lived my life and done my best, an example tried to be. So I can take that step beyond and set my spirit free? I didn't want to go at first, I fought with all my might. But something seems to draw me now to a warm and living light. I want to go I really do. It's difficult to stay. But I will try as best I can to live just one more day. To give you time to care for me and share your love and fears. I know you're sad and afraid, because I see your tears. I'll not be far, I promise that, and hope you'll always know that my spirit will be close to you wherever you may go. Thank you for loving me. You know I love you too, that's why it's hard to say goodbye and end this life with you. So hold me now just one more time and let me hear you say, because you care so much for me, you'll let me go today. ~Susan A. Jackson~
I can hardly see through my tears... today I sent my best friend of years and years somewhere he had to go, where pain and sickness he won't have to know. He's been with me ever since he was a pup... today I've had to give him up. He was sick, we both knew it and I wouldn't put him through it. Thinking back to the day my wife brought him, I told her then that I didn't want him... "Noise and mess and bills to pay!" - I can't believe I felt that way. Didn't know that in the end, he would be my dearest friend. Didn't know that he would be the greatest gift that came to me. How did one like me deserve a friend who wanted just to serve? What was there that made him love me, with nobody else above me? When I looked into his eyes, never did he criticize, never did he hold a grudge, never did he try to judge. Recently, an anxious day. "How come you don't want to play?" Took him to the vet to see what might be wrong with my "puppy". Worse by far than I expected, fatal illness was detected. Nothing much that we could do but keep him comfy til he's through. Back at home I tried to tell him of the bad luck that befell him All I could see in his eyes was wondering why his master cries. I don't think he understood - his eyes just asked "Wasn't I good?" "How come now I make you sad? Let me kiss and hug you, dad!" Two last weeks I had to try to find a way to say goodbye. In that time I told him more than I ever had before just how much I loved my pup, how it hurt to give him up. How though gone, he'd always be inside my heart, a part of me. Then today was no mistaking, I made the decision, my heart was breaking. I called and asked the vet to come by - I didn't have to tell him why. He arrived in awhile and asked "Are you ready?" I sighed, I nodded, I felt so unsteady. Got down on the floor by my boy who was dying, and I just didn't care if the vet saw me crying. As my pup slipped away, the last things he felt were the kisses and hugs of his master who knelt On that "blankie" beside him to bid him goodbye, who had just one more minute to tell him, to try to say thanks to his boy for a lifetime of love.... "Dear God, let me see him in heaven above! But for now Lord, please hold him, watch over his rest... if he wakes in Your arms tell him I love him best."
The little dog arrived at the Rainbow Bridge, and a pack of dogs rushed up to greet him. He braced himself, expecting a fight, but this was the first pack that wagged their tails and kissed him instead of attacking him. It was beautiful here and everyone was nice to him. None of them had been born in a puppy mill, like he had, and used for dog-bait fighting and left to die in a shelter because he was a mix-breed battle-scarred cur and wasn't cute. They explained why they were waiting....for their humans who loved them. "What is love?", he asked, and God let him go back to earth and find out. Warm, and dark, he squeezed in with the others and waited for the day to be born. Scared, he held back as long as he could, but finally got dragged out, by his hind feet. Hands without fur held him gently and rubbed him dry and opened his mouth and guided him to a warm nipple with milk. He didn't get a good hold on it, because one of his big fat brothers pushed him aside. the human hand moved the other puppy to another nipple and held his body, so he could drink. "Ahhh, that's better", he thought, and drank until his jaws go tired and he curled up to sleep next to his warm hairy mother. "I remember this," he mused..."Too bad I'll have to grow up to be hit, left out in the cold and rain, and used for dog-bait fighting, and die as an unclaimed rescue dog. I remember what it's like, being a dog", he thought sadly. That night, he crawled up to his mother and tried to nurse, but he kept getting pushed off to the side. When they were full, the big brothers and sisters got their bottoms cleaned and he finally latched on to a nipple, but the human hands weren't there to hold him up, and there wasn't any milk in any of the nipples, anyway. He was weak and so tiny. It was even hard to stay upright, and he fell over on his back and couldn't right himself. So he began to cry, and suddenly the human hands were there, holding him up and putting a rubber thing in his mouth. It didn't taste or feel like mother, but it was warm and made the ache in him tummy go away. He was having trouble breathing... His lungs weren't fully developed, because he had waited too long to join the others in the womb, as he took one last romp at the Rainbow Bridge. He could feel the heartbeat of the human, who had laid him on her chest and covered him with a soft cloth, keeping him warm, and soothing his boney body with gentle circling touches. He kept thinking of his new friend who had been so nice to him at the bridge and asked God if he could go back. God said "Yes, but not just yet. You wanted to experience Love." So, for several hours (seemed like days but it was dark and he couldn't tell what time it was), the human supplemented his feeding and let him experience the warmth of his mother's body and tongue, and the pile of warm soft littermates. He got weaker, and the human held him more often, leaving the littermates to sleep in a pile while he got caressed, kissed, and got to listen to the heartbeat which was strong and loving. Finally God came back and asked, "Are you ready to come back to the Rainbow Bridge?" "Yes," he responded, with a little sorrow, because the human didn't want to let him go and was crying. He pushed the air out of his lungs and floated back to the Rainbow Bridge and looked back at the human, who was still crying and holding the limp body that he had borrowed for his trip. "Thank you, God," he said. "Love is beautiful, and I will wait near the Bridge and let the human know, when she arrives, that I loved her too."
To my dearest family, some things I'd like to say. But first of all, to let you know, that I arrived okay. I'm writing this from the Bridge. Here I dwell with God above. Here there's no more tears of sadness. Here is just eternal love. Please do not be unhappy just because I'm out of sight. Remember that I am with you every morning, noon and night. That day I had to leave you when my life on earth was through, God picked me up and hugged me and He said, "I welcome you. It's good to have you back again, you were missed while you were gone. As for your dearest family, They'll be here later on." God gave me a list of things, that he wished for me to do. And foremost on the list, was to watch and care for you. And when you lie in bed at night the day's chores put to flight, God and I are closest to you... in the middle of the night. When you think of my life on earth, and all those loving years, because you are only human, they are bound to bring you tears. But do not be afraid to cry: it does relieve the pain. Remember there would be no flowers, unless there was some rain. I wish that I could tell you all that God has planned. If I were to tell you, you wouldn't understand. But one thing is for certain, though my life on earth is o'er. I'm closer to you now, than I ever was before. There are rocky roads ahead of you and many hills to climb; But together we can do it by taking one day at a time. It was always my philosophy and I'd like it for you too; That as you give unto the world, the world will give to you. If you can help somebody who's in sorrow and pain; Then you can say to God at night... "My day was not in vain." And now I am contented... that my life was worthwhile. Knowing as I passed along I made somebody smile. God says: "If you meet somebody who is sad and feeling low; Just lend a hand to pick him up, as on your way you go. When you're walking down the street with me on your mind; I'm walking in your footsteps only half a step behind." "And when it's time for you to go... from that body to be free. Remember you're not going... you're coming here to me." -Author Unknown
There are various places within which a dog may be buried. We are thinking now of a setter, whose coat was flame in the sunshine, and who, so far as we are aware, never entertained a mean or an unworthy thought. This setter is buried beneath a cherry tree, under four feet of garden loam, and at its proper season the cherry strews petals on the green lawn of his grave. Beneath a cherry tree, or an apple, or any flowering shrub of the garden, is an excellent place to bury a good dog. Beneath such trees, such shrubs, he slept in the drowsy summer, or gnawed at a flavorous bone, or lifted head to challenge some strange intruder. These are good places, in life or in death. Yet it is a small matter, and it touches sentiment more than anything else.
For if the dog be well remembered, if sometimes he leaps through your dreams actual as in life, eyes kindling, questing, asking, laughing, begging, it matters not at all where that dog sleeps at long and at last. On a hill where the wind is unrebuked and the trees are roaring, or beside a stream he knew in puppyhood, or somewhere in the flatness of a pasture land, where most exhilarating cattle graze. It is all one to the dog, and all one to you, and nothing is gained, and nothing lost -- if memory lives. But there is one best place to bury a dog. One place that is best of all.
If you bury him in this spot, the secret of which you must already have, he will come to you when you call -- come to you over the grim, dim frontiers of death, and down the well-remembered path, and to your side again. And though you call a dozen living dogs to heel they should not growl at him, nor resent his coming, for he is yours and he belongs there.
People may scoff at you, who see no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall, who hear no whimper pitched too fine for mere audition, people who may never really have had a dog. Smile at them then, for you shall know something that is hidden from them, and which is well worth the knowing.
The one best place to bury a good dog is in the heart of his master.
by Ben Hur Lampman