Sunday's Message - April 17, 2011

Good morning to you all on this beautiful day - Palm Sunday for those of you who will be celebrating Easter next week. My church secretary is a little incapacitated today and will be retiring early, so I've approved her sending this a few hours early. I hope you don't mind.

We do have a field trip planned for today and snacks will be served on the bus. I, your Chaplain, am pleased to be your guest speaker today.

(bewildered applause...some mumbling....puppies scrunching up in their seats to get comfortable...large Basset hound yawning noisily....)

(ahem!)

We think too small, said the Chinese leader Mao Tse-Tung, like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he would have an entirely different view.

By putting ourselves into another's place we can see the world from an entirely
different perspective. We feel empathy for the other's situation or lot in life. We
see a homeless man standing on a highway asking for money, food, or work. So many of us automatically look the other way. If we don't see him, he doesn't exist. If he doesn't exist, then we have no responsibility to initiate a change.

When someone wants a dog, are they asking for a companion? A friend? Someone who will love them unconditionally and who will be grateful for the smallest scrap of food and a warm bed? Or are they asking for a cute little puppy - a live version of a stuffed toy, to nuzzle and play with until they become bored. Until there's a puddle that needs mopping, or a pile that needs picking up.....or a shoe that needs replacing, a hole in the backyard that needs filling, hair that needs brushing, fleas that need removal....and I could go on and on.

Our shelters and rescues are full of former "cute little puppies" who once filled an
immediate need and then somehow disappointed their owners. Abandoned by their families they now want only to love and be loved.

Do you live your life as if you were entitled to take from it what you can without
giving back? To cuddle a puppy until he becomes a dog? Are you the frog in the bottom of the well? Or do you look beyond your confines and ask what you can give back to the world - to humanity and doggonity? And to God? - for giving you the opportunity to make a difference to someone else's life?

Last week I asked for volunteer speakers and none came forward. I asked for ideas for
field trips and - thank you, Eleanor, for suggesting the Carmel Mission, or Lourdes, or that place in Colorado - I shall continue to look for either virtual tours or live
streaming tours to these places suitable to accomodate our entire cyber parish. All suggestions are welcomed.

Meanwhile, gentle Pups, our tour bus is waiting outside.

Today, as promised, we are visiting the Flying Skunk Chicken Farm located in Martha's
Vineyard. Imagine your life as a chicken (or a goat..there's goats there, too!)
outside all day and night, no matter what the weather. You have no name, and you don't know if you'll be contributing to Saturday's omelet, or if you'll be Sunday's main course.

For today, allow yourself to become a CHICKEN and to see the universe from a chicken's perspective.

Click on Flying Skunk Chickens

(I suggest you click on "full screen" to get the full effect)

It was raining pretty hard at 8:29PM EDT as we wrote this. Very wet, muddy, lightning
and thunder...and it looked pretty cold and windy. Oh, and watch out for raccoons,
skunks and weasels. They have to eat, too.

Thank you, Lord, for making me an instrument of your peace and giving me the opportunity to enrich the lives of others. For however long you allow me to be on this earth, I sincerely hope that I will have made this a better place.

Amen

Hurry now....bus is waiting!!!

Blessings...


Mary-Margaret O'Brien
Lt. Chaplain - Yorkie Brigade Chapel
"Yorkie prayers are Angel's wishes!"
"Pups for PPL"
"A dog has lots of friends because he wags his tail and not his tongue." Anonymous