Tag Archives: memories

A Best Friend–

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Jack’s post this week is sad – –

As many of our friends are now aware, our beloved Bruce left us and crossed the rainbow bridge last Friday after a short illness. I’m of an age now to have outlived a good few dogs and many cats, but the cats are independent and live their lives outside ours, whereas the dogs seem much more dependent, loyal, and trusting. Bruce certainly fit that description!

We had him (or he had us) for over four years, and he was probably around six years old when we got him. His first experience with us was a serious leg operation, which made him very suspicious of animal hospitals afterwards – at least he didn’t blame us. We don’t know much about his early life, but we suspect it wasn’t happy.

He really just had two modes – either sleeping on one of his beds around the house or romping around the backyard like a puppy.

Our good friend Susi Lawson is an excellent and prizewinning photographer, and she started coming to our house for weekly guitar lessons about six months ago. She never goes anywhere without her camera, so we have many lovely pictures of ‘Brucey,’ as she dubbed him. She posted a collection of pictures on Facebook a few days ago plus a very moving tribute which captures well how Bruce was seen by all our friends.

Photos credited to Susi Lawson

“This is a tribute to the most sweetest zen dog I’ve ever met. Bruce (I called him Brucey) He was truly an empath.

He could feel the energy in the room and respond with those big cow eyes just by walking over and leaning against your leg. He once sensed my sadness in a conversation and silently padded over and leaned his head against my arm and looked up at me, as if to say “I’m here for you”. One night Jack and I spontaneously jumped up and danced to a song (it was an old Motown CD) and Bruce jubilantly joined in running around us in a surprising burst of energy. It was sheer joy!

It was obvious that Jack and Wendy loved him dearly and he was their ever present companion.

I grew to love him too and I think he was very fond of me. He knew the sound of my car and would meet me at the door.

He was a good solid presence of the kind of love we all need from one another. He knew when to comfort, when to dance and when to chill.

He was the ultimate zen doggie.”

I don’t think I could put it better!

RIP Brucey

Come back next Wednesday for more from Jack

When You Feel Sad

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Jack gets over the line again in time – –

Yes – Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a real thing! A friend mentioned it in an email a few days ago, and it got me to thinking – –

I spent most of my life living in central Scotland, and in mid-winter, there, the days are short. I mean that even on sunny days the light starts around 10 am and stops around 3 pm. (Harlan isn’t the only place this happens.) If I had lived in the far north, maybe Orkney or Shetland, there wouldn’t have been any light at all! I’ve heard tales of folk up there holding golf tournaments by head lamps at noon – –

But folk were used to it and mostly just adapted – unless they were incomers from further south. Wendy arrived in Scotland from Newfoundland, which is the tiniest bit higher up toward the North pole, so her winters actually got longer!

In days of yore, by which I mean pre-Christian times, the early inhabitants were sun worshipers and held ceremonies around the winter solstice to encourage the sun to return and for the days to lengthen again. Many of these fire festivals survive to the present day and usually involve a procession with a ‘clavie’ – a large iron cage filled with burning wood with all the people either taking a burning ember to their house or adding more wood to the cage.

In Shetland they have ‘Up Helly A,’ when a replica Viking longship is hauled through the town to the harbor and then set on fire. I think this may also be why New Year celebrations are more significant than Christmas in Scotland? No one really knows when Christ was born, so the existing sun/Son worship time seemed appropriate.

I don’t remember ever having suffered from SAD when I was living in Scotland, and I still don’t really here in Southern Virginia, but I do notice the change of light more. I wonder if that is because, being much further south, the summers are longer and warmer, so the contrast is more stark.

There’s a whole other argument about the need for changing the clocks – springing forward and falling back — but that’s the subject for another post – –

Come back next Wednesday for more from Jack