Review: Jack McAfghan is "A Treasure!!!!!!!"

☆☆☆☆☆ "There is so much healing and love flowing from this book it will spin your head around and you will forever know the reason your beloved pet came into your life and then left. For every time there is a season and for every loss there is a reason. A treasure!!!!!!!" Amazon Customer Review

Did God Take Him Away to Punish Me?

Dear Jack,
If it wasn't for my dog I would surely be dead or in prison. He had this little look he would give me like he was saying, You Know You Shouldn't Do That, then he would come up and lick my face like he still loved me. He really turned my life around. He was a God send. I thought at first God took him to punish me for things I've done but a Preacher told me God loves all the things we do and wasn't like that. 
Could that be true? 
Pete

Dear Pete,
Oh my friend it's true. God was not punishing you at all. You cannot lose God and you cannot lose your dog either. They both live in a Place Beyond Time. Try to keep your beautiful dog in the present tense, because Love Never Dies. It's hard to realize amidst your grief and your loss that your dog still is very much alive in spirit and soul. He is not in your past. He is your Now. He is your Forever.  He is your Always. 

It was the voice in your own head that you projected into your dog's head that said, “You Know You Shouldn’t Do That.” Your dog never ever stood in judgment or blame, not for a moment. God was simply giving you a glimpse of Him and His Love through your dog's awareness, forgiveness and acceptance of All That You Are. All. That. You are. You are loved. You are accepted. You are forgiven. This is what we come to teach you and this is why God sends us.  We are His gifts to you so that you can know how much you are Loved. 

I love you too.
Jack

National Haiku Day - April 17

Your laughter in waves

My boat skims on the surface

Till I make waves too. 

Haiku: A Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.

A Day in the Life of a Dream

My Poem. 

In Honor of National Poetry Month on National Pet Day.  

Look around at what you've got. 

What you value matters not.

The eyes of love see everything.

Let the ones who love you bring

The meaning of this life to you:

To learn to love before you're through. 

Beyond this place is a world that's true

Not this dream you thought was you. 

Things are not what they may seem.

It's just a day within a dream. 

Roommate Has The Bed By The Window

An old story I've heard since I started working in health care -- so many years ago....  

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window.

The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.  The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour 

periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline

could be seen in the distance.  As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn't hear the band - he could see it. In his mind's eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days and weeks passed. One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in

his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone. Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up 

on one elbow  to take his first look at the real world outside.

He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.

It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window

The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall. She said, "Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you."

It's All Backwards: The US-Mexican Border

I don't get into politics here as a rule but now that I live within a half hour of the Arizona-Mexico border I can see and feel the truth. I studied border issues in the late 1990's and wrote a book and screenplay based on my research. Before moving to the area last year I studied it carefully. Times have changed. I wanted to make sure I was making a good decision.

www.visittucson.org

I learned that the crime rates in Tucson are far higher than the crime rates in Nogales, the nearby shared bordertown. The U. S. Border Patrol here covers many bases. The highway check stations, the many miles of wilderness roads and pathways. I see their vehicles everywhere. Even on off-road treks. No doubt they have their own drones to do the initial scouting for them. Drugs are an issue yes. They are an issue everywhere. Drugs aside, border crossers are an issue, yes. Most of them are looking for a cup of water, a place to lay their head, or a new pair of shoes en route to their hope for a better life. Do we really need the military? A kazillion dollar wall? The National Guard? At what cost? 

Granted, there are longstanding issues of uninsured motorists, children of illegal immigrants, babies born on this side of the Rio Grande who are automatically citizens (and many good ones!) and drug trafficking issues. Language barriers, comprehension barriers and "Press 1 for English".  There are many issues that need to be sorted underlying the debate of walls and caravans. 

Source: Wikimedia Commons

As a Clinical Social Worker I have coordinated outreach services for over 30 years for people who are in dire straits physically, financially, emotionally. In my experience, the government programs have typically responded in 24-72 hours to a referral; a call for help for someone in need. They've always been wonderful. Now there is often a Wait List for first response. One week, two, six weeks. Their hands of advocacy are tied because of budget limitations.

I remember clearly a care facility in Cottonwood AZ years ago when the workers went on strike. The facility had to meet the needs of its residents somehow. Few of the unemployed locals wanted to do that kind of work for minimum wage. The facility ultimately hired Mexican workers who were more than happy to work for minimum wage and care for the residents as "familia". The facility was never a happier place, albeit temporary. I witnessed it firsthand.

Please pray for our leaders and their decisions, which currently seem to be undoing the things that took many years and others before them to put into place. Our own people are in need while debt money is directed elsewhere. We need funding for our own people, not for military to stand guard when, as I see it, there is more danger in our own schools and U. S. cities than there is at our borders.

Life is the school, love is the lesson. 

Politics builds walls that love tears down. 

Politics issues orders while Love works together 

to find common ground and compromise. 

A wall doesn't keep the others out, it actually keeps you in. 

God Bless America.  Ego says, "We've Got It Covered, Lord" 
While Love says, "Come! We need You now!"

If I Were You, If You Were Me

April is National Poetry Month. Why don't you write a poem too? You might surprise yourself with your talent on expressing something you are passionate about. Try to get out of your head and gently move into your heart and see what happens. I wrote this little rambling poem/song while I was out walking the dogs one night not long ago and I thought I would post it. In honor of April.

If I were you
I'd be able to see
The way you'd come to live for me.
If I were you
I'd hear the way
You honor me each time you pray.
If I were you
I'd feel your face
I'd touch your heart
I'd taste the life you bring to me
I'd know your scent when you are near
And when you're not - when you must leave -
I'd always trust that you'd return.
I'd have no fear. I would not grieve
I'd have great faith. I would believe
In you and me.
Two hearts entwined;
My life yours and your life mine.
If I were you
I'd taste
I'd smell
I'd see
I'd hear
I'd feel
I'd sense
I'd want you near
I'd love you dear...
I love you.

But I'm not you.
I'm not you.

 ©2018  Kate McGahan

Who is speaking in the poem? Who is You? Who is Me? Who is speaking? A child? A parent? A pet? A friend? A lover? God? Everyone who ever loved or couldn't love? It's all By Design. We are shaped by those who love us and by those who refuse to love us. At one time or another, one situation or the other, we each have loved in this lifetime and we each at a certain moment have disregarded the call to love.

If you now feel unloved, it is not true. You are not a victim of a life without love. Someone Somewhere loves you very much. Someone you do not see or seem to sense. You are never alone. Think about this and look around. You are the one who does not see. Open your eyes, your ears, your heart and find the One who loves you.  Seek. You shall find.