Remembering a friend, appreciating the now (click here for full article)

Remembering a friend, appreciating the now by Tom Stienstra
Sunday, May 15, 2005

The early rains of May bring out the brilliant white blooms of the dogwood trees, the arrival of spring in the mountains, a time for adventures and the memories of friends loved and lost.

Near a downed log in deep forest, far from any trail, a dogwood tree blooms every year this week. It grows over the grave site of my old dog, Rebel, who rambled and roamed with me for 17 years, and blooms each year on the day that I buried him.

In nature, that dogwood represents spring's rebirth of the land. For me, it also symbolizes the crossing over of my old dog's spirit to the other side, to live again.

Every day for 17 years, Rebel slept on my feet as I wrote, so when I finished a story and got up to go, he'd wake, ready for the next trip. Then one spring morning, while curled up beneath me, he had a devastating stroke. An hour later, I held his head in my hands and he gave me a lick on a cheek, and as I held him, he died. It felt like my heart was dying with him.

But a moment later, I sensed something rise from his body, a distinct but amorphous presence, and then hover over him for a few seconds, then drift off and vanish. Now some 10 years later, I believe what I felt was his spirit leaving his physical shell and crossing over. In his death, I felt divine force.
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