"What A Dream I (he) Had"

With Belle off being evaluated, I thought I would share a Bulletin Board item from today's Pioneer Press that I really liked (The Mighty Wickard is the submitter of the piece). I hope you will, too.

The Mighty Wickard of "Cottage Grove - city motto: 'Come for our hundreds of pizza parlors; stay for our awful round-about experience'):

"A year or two ago, right after we found out my beautiful boxer dog Moose had a brain tumor, there was the usual grief and misery people experience when they find out they are facing an impending loss of a beloved pet.

"And as is often the case, the stress of the day makes its way into our sleeping thoughts and causes dreams about those matters.

"I slept, and suddenly I realized I was in the presence of God. I couldn't see Him, so I can't tell you if he looked more like ... say, Rodney Dangerfield, the Skipper from 'Gilligan's Island,' or Jane Fonda, but I knew it was God.

"I wept and told him that I would do anything, pay anything, to just have more time with my dog.

"God didn't answer to me directly, but instead put a couple of very large bowls on the table. One bowl contained a bunch of deep purplish/blue marbles about the size of walnuts. God told me that these marbles represented all the months of my life, from birth to death. The other bowl was empty, and He said that this bowl represented my dog's remaining time with us. Then God invited me to move as many of the marbles from MY bowl to Moose's bowl as I wanted to.

"The dilemma was, like all of us, I didn't know how many marbles I had in my bowl. How much time do I have to spare? Would I so eagerly exchange my time if it meant losing time with my family, just to change the plan He had already put in place? I declined, and God brought out several more bowls with marbles. These, He explained, were the time for people I loved. Would I want to take marbles from THEIR bowls to put into my dog's bowl?

"Now, my lesson was becoming clearer. When it would impact people I love, would I be so quick to remove their time just to soothe my own sadness?

"Again, I had to say no. I awoke, not feeling any better about my dog, but the dream did give me a bit of insight into my own selfishness. Sometimes, we have to play the hand we are dealt, and this game doesn't allow you to ask the dealer for a few replacement cards for those we want to discard.

"Next time I talk to God, I'm going to have to ask him if there was some trick to the test, like one of my marbles was worth seven dog marbles, but I have a sneaking suspicion that He is a straight shooter and wasn't trying to pull anything over on me."