Ruminations on Nature and Ourselves

Dog Poet Transmitting.......

May your noses always be cold and wet (R.I.P. Silky Lilly Nelson 11/11/11)

In my recent Smoking Mirrors of 11/11/11, I placed an obit reference as seen above, to the loss of our first and oldest dog, Silky Lilly Nelson and a possibly abstruse comment referring to it in the following text. It passed by without generating a comment by any of the readers. That's fine. I simply mention it in passing. Lilly was a great teacher to me and many a time on our walks (I would take her out alone) she was instrumental in bringing about a conversation between me and the angel that the divine uses to communicate with me. Some of the lessons were profound and had archetypal significance. Susanne was temporarily devastated by the loss. Lilly meant a great deal to her. Pets represent the subconscious and are one of the mechanisms that the ineffable uses to communicate with us. Everyone who has a pet is aware of this feature in one way or another.

It was evident to us that Lilly was on her way back to The Devic Realm. Lord Ganesh is the ruler of that kingdom. I had some talks with him about receiving her and that was yet one more teaching experience for me. I recognize that there are probably any number of people who think I'm a tad looney for carrying on conversations with my invisible friends but it's as real as real can be for me and has been for some time. That is just the course my life has taken and it is an option that is open for all of us who choose to take the trouble and make the effort to establish contact. The historical record is filled with individuals who have engaged in dialogue with the higher ups. You don't need temporal credentials or high born parents to achieve this. It's not an exclusive club, where membership is determined by the usual criteria we see down here; actually quite the reverse. All it takes is effort and sincerity. As I have mentioned in the past, it is like priming a pump. If you are familiar with the pumps, that used to provide water for homesteads in older times, then you are familiar with its primary above ground instrument; an extended arm that you pump up and down. No water comes at first but you just keep pumping. Then, dirty, discolored water will begin to appear. As you continue, the water will eventually run clean and clear and then you can take your hand off of it and the water will continue to run on its own. There is nothing more to any of it than that. If you are persistent, you will make contact.

I don't take any credit for being able to do this. It doesn't make me special among my fellows in any way. I had no choice. My life was so difficult and hard for so long that I had nowhere else to go. It just happened by default, given that all other doors were closed. Whatever we have is a gifting from the supreme lover. Our part in it might even be completely incidental but I suspect our response of enthusiasm and tenacity play an important part. Then there is the testing. Most people aren't determined and sincere enough to keep at it regardless of the trials and lack of initial success. Far more people pick up the guitar than learn to play it and the same can be said for anything. I just wanted this more than anything else and it is available to anyone who does. The divine used Lilly in our lives and our lives were made richer by her presence. She had to take those heart tablets that so many dogs require because of heart-worm, so we knew her days would be shorter than normal and they were. Toward the end she was taking a great many water tablets and that came with its own complications. Then she had that same coughing that eventually took Bessie the Hoover from us. She was so named because she was like a vacuum cleaner when she covered the surface of the floor looking for dropped food or whatever.

These are the things you deal with when your dogs are all recovered from the streets or from kennels. People who have been coming here for awhile will remember when I found The Little Guy in an olive grove in Italy. It had been raining and I saw this bedraggled little creature who was moving through the undergrowth. At first I thought it was following this old man with an umbrella, who was a little ahead of him but The Little Guy couldn't even make it up on to the sidewalk. Part of me thought to drive by but the other part of me wasn't going to allow that. There was no doubt in my mind that he was not going to last very long in a relatively indifferent landscape, where people toss their dogs on to the streets without an after thought when they tire of them. I took him home and cleaned him up and he was a lot of fun. A few weeks into his residence, I was sitting by one of the woodstoves and wondering what happened to one of my work gloves. I said it aloud. The Little Guy disappeared into another room and came out with my glove in his mouth. Consonant with that my jaw dropped. We found a fantastic home for The Little Guy, with a dog trainer and they love him so much. They even had a small book published, detailing the adventures of his arrival and time with them and gave us a copy, which brought both of us to tears. Now we hear that some kind of black stuff is coming out of his ears and they don't know what is happening. The doctors say he should be in terrible pain but he just acts normal. They've spent a lot of money trying to find a fix and have now turned to Ayurveda and are hopeful that all will be well. I am hopeful too but... such is life. Life has a dark companion we don't like to talk about and a sidekick called Loss that attends him wherever he goes.

A Jyotish astrologer told me I should be wearing emeralds and diamonds close to my skin (grin). He's been pretty spot on about everything. I laughed and said, “Sure, I've got plenty of those lying around”. I don't wear jewelry anyway but... a couple of weeks ago I found a piece of costume metal jewelry; a wide metal bracelet that kind of resembles the Native American work you see in the Southwest. It's green and gold and I said, “Well, let's see”. Strangely enough it comforted me. A few days ago I noticed it was no longer on my wrist and I thought, “Huh”? I looked around for it but couldn't find it. The night after Lilly passed, Susanne went down to take the dogs outside. When she came in she had left Poncho outside (she does that a lot-grin). So she went to let him back in and I heard her call, “Visible! You have to come here”. Then she said “Wait”. Then she came up and handed me the bracelet. She said, “Poncho just came in with this in his mouth. He wouldn't give it to me but went and laid it on his bed”. His bed is at a landing on the stairs coming up to where I was. He left it there and Susanne picked it up and brought it to me; shades of the glove. Events like this have become commonplace. I find myself saying “God is Great” many times a day. The degree of smooth running these days is off the charts. I wouldn't know where to begin to describe what my days are like recently. It all has a 'too good to be true' aura about it. The one I speak with told me, “Get used to it. You haven't seen anything yet. You have no idea”. I'd like to say this is very comforting but it is scary too. When you juxtapose it with the way my life has been in former times, it can be hair raising; if I had any hair.

A certain and very small quadrant of anonymous types have been at work lately in an effort to misrepresent and diminish me in various ways. Certain blog postings have been sent to me where people are complaining that I don't say the word, “Jew”. Well, of course I do. I just don't hate them entirely, like they wish I did but my life experience proves otherwise and I have to go with that. Some are objecting that I have a donate button on my site. Some are complaining that I am publishing books and might actually be making some money, overlooking the fact that I already set it up so that a significant portion of anything I make goes to others. Some are objecting to the spiritual angle because the spiritual world is bullshit, according to them and it might be true for them as well. I don't have all the details on how that works out. I do know that I personally possess very little in material terms but no one can or should argue in their own defense, when the intent of those attacking them aren't based on rational or evidence based arguments. To argue is to lose. Let the evidence speak for itself. In time it certainly will. Things like this come with the territory and wouldn't even happen if the divine didn't permit it so... there's a reason for all that and I suspect it is just another case of the divine checking to see what I will do about it. Nothing, I think, is my considered response. When I start driving Rolls Royces and flying in private planes, I'll take these criticisms under advisement. For the moment, I think I'll just sail on with the cosmic wind at my back, or find out otherwise.

The key to all of this is whether one is affected by any of it. The key to that is to hold only one opinion of being of any importance and that opinion is generated by the one who has everything under control at all times. People are very angry these days and the irony of those complaining about one not bringing water to people in the desert, or on the spot, physically feeding starving children is that they aren't doing it themselves. My position has always been that those so engaged are not having the time to criticize those they imagine are not working alongside them. They are too busy doing it. We are called to different things. The key is to be of service somehow in some way. Some of us bring things to people's attention and that improves the world if these things awaken useful understandings. Some of us donate our money. Some of us donate our effort to improve the lives of others in the necessary environments. Some of us protest and march against injustice. We all serve or do not serve, according to what does or does not motivate us. Accusations are one thing. Literal proof is quite another. Base emotions of jealousy on the one hand and a sense of non inclusiveness are generally at the heart of these things.

Many of those enraged are enraged at their own sense of impotence because they equate success and the positions they desire for themselves with a badly concealed desire for self promotion and the fulfillment of self interest. When they don't get it they scoff at those who do. Anyone can succeed at anything if Love motivates their efforts. Anyone can succeed in the marketplace and the newspapers if they are willing to pay the cost and many of them don't count the cost at all. The reality of the cost has yet to present itself. To quote an old Arab proverb, “The dogs bark but the caravan moves on”. Time and destiny will reveal the truth about all of us; what we did and what we didn't do, what we were publicly and privately. The past will accuse us. The present will reveal us and the future will judge us. There is no escaping this. It will come to each and everyone of us and most of us will be forgotten as if we never were for reasons that should be obvious but often are not.

This is another reason that I am at pains to say, “I don't know”. The contradiction here is that sometimes I indicate that I do know but contradiction is inherent in conversation. Then again, both may be true at different times or even in the same time. Some people want to understand and some do not and we have no control over that. We are supremely lucky if we even have some control over ourselves. Time and the river will sort us out and crush us or elevate us for whatever good or following ill it happens for. I like to think about it in terms of baseball, which I played for many years. If you can hear the noise of the crowd and opposing fans, you will not be able to fully concentrate on the ball. We used to call that 'rabbit ears'. It's not a good thing to have and if you are certain of your course you won't have that condition, on the field or in your life. It's not in our hands and never was.


End Transmission.......

Visible sings: ♫ Brotherhood ♫
'Brotherhood' is track no. 9 of 12 on Visible's 2007 album 'Almost A Capella'
Lyrics (pops up)



There will be a radio show tonight.