Playing Dead
I knew an old man once. His wife had died suddenly leaving him with only time and memory to accompany him. On advice from a friend he got a shelter dog someone had pushed out of a car when it was too old to keep.
The old man, injured by love and loss, had grown bitter. He tried to teach the old dog new tricks. He tried endlessly to teach it to play dead. When the dog refused, he would kick it.
The dog forgave the old man, who it turned out, was really just teaching himself to play dead.
And in time it was the dog that taught the man what every thrown away shelter dog knows.
How to forgive.
And how to live again.
Someday I’ll Learn to Fly Will Maguire copyright@2018 Once there was a jungle and in the jungle was a river. And the river was full of mud. There each day a herd of rhinoceros swam. Among them was a very young rhino and like all rhinos he played in the mud and ran with the herd. But at night when the jungle was quiet, flying high above the river, he could see birds. One day he asked his mother ‘Mama…will I ever fly?’ She shook her head “No son. The birds have the air and we have the mud.” “No rhino will ever fly.” And the young rhino was sad. That night he awoke to the sound of a great wind and a light like a star in the sky. And high above the jungle, flying like a bird, he saw a very old rhino. The next day he told his father “Last night I saw an old rhino fly away.” “It was just a dream son. No rhino will ever fly.” his father said. "Be grateful for the mud.” ...
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