Author -Rick Kron
“It seems to me that the good Lord in his infinite wisdom gave us three things to make life bearable: hope, jokes, and dogs. But the greatest of these was dogs.”
-Robyn Davidson, Australian writer and adventurer
“Watson, I really don’t have anything,”
I tell our dog.
“About the only things I can think of are aspen trees.”
He cocks his head to the side, like he sometimes does, to let me know he is listening,
or when he thinks a treat may be on the way.
“Wikipedia says an aspen grove is really just one big tree, with the roots all growing together, and the trunks and shoots and leaves are all clones of each other.”
He smiles with a puzzled look. What are you saying?
“Well, it’s true, they are all rooted together. The grove is one big plant growing together.”
He blinks several times.
“And the Forest Service says the oldest aspen grove is 80,000 years old, but they don’t say who counted all those rings.”
Watson is impressed, but he refuses to show it.
“See, rooted in love, growing together, aspen trees do that. The church community is like that, too, rooted in love, growing together.”
“How so?” He rarely asks questions.
“We’re all there, rooting for each other. Each of us is upon our separate spiritual sojourn but traveling together. Life is a mystery. No one is sure what’s happening now, or what’s coming next, and it has always been that way. Sometimes advancing, sometimes retreating, trying to make sense of it all.”
He yawns.
I stand up and get a treat from the jar. He is instantly awake.
I flip the treat to him.
He almost never catches them, but he gets this one. He crunches the treat.
“So that’s it. Rooted and growing. Thanks for listening.”
Morning prayer: God, please help me get through this day.
Evening prayer: God, thank you for helping me get through this day.
