Why is it that the meanest dogs seem to have the most elegant names?

It seems to me that all brown dogs, for example are dangerous, as are all short, thick-set, bull necked multi-coloured dogs. Of course the last two sentences are generalizations, but from my experience they have become my reality.

Take the brown dog that has just moved into our street, who before ‘encountered’ I became suspicious of just because the new house owners built a double fence in which the back one had perspex portals, windows placed at dog height for them to keep a watchful eye on the passing neighbors. Bella, as she is called managed to escape this fortress one day, much to the dismay of the owner who was running, calling frantically, ‘Bella Stop! Bella Stop!’ Bella didn’t stop and she hurtled across the street grounding my fox terrier Wendy, (who by the way deserves her beautiful name in looks and character) into the gutter. Even though her owner was assuring me that Bella would be ‘ok’, he failed to realize that my dog might not be, not to say anything of the state the experience left me in.

And then there was ‘Peaches’, the short stubby dog who blantantly disregarded her owners command to ‘Stop!’ and charged along the beach intent on intimidating my (perfect) specimen of a fox terrier (I hear other terriers saying ‘yeah right’ at this point). Peaches was not on a lead, and when I kindly asked her owner to put her on it, the lady looked straight through me, no response, and continued allowing her two dogs (the other a brown one) to wander along the beach freely.

Now I have a problem.

I can’t walk my dog on a lead safely down my own street which I have been doing for the past 10 years for fear of Bella who might escape her double-skinned enclosure. Neither am I safe to venture out to our local Bethells Beach in case Peaches is running unrestrained.Aparently in both of these scenarios the culprits were harmless?! Perhaps they just wanted to check my Wendy out, do the usual ‘sniff’ thing, and be done with it. Maybe my dog is actually the guilty party.  She is of course a terrier, known for their ‘big dog in a small body’ attitude, and doesn’t take kindly to being checked out.

Regardless, she was on her lead walking obediently beside me, and on this occasion at the beach I had even taken a plastic bag to remove all evidence of her being there, making a dedicated choice to be a responsible dog owner, with others and the environment in mind.

We were both doing the right thing, which seems to gets me no-where when it comes to walking my dog. Maybe I could start drawing other parallels to life in general.

But for now it’s just another dog story.

Our destination was sure, but remained shrouded in mystery. Santiago, even though the end of our journey, was not the focus, rather the daily walk that offered us a sense of adventure and hope, for at the end of each day we knew there would be a place to lay our head and a place to feast on the culinary delights of Spanish fare. But the day itself was the point, the ‘not knowing what was around the corner’, kept us anticipating surprise and wonder.

We were guided by ancient stone pillars, brass scallop shells and yellow arrows pointing the Way, and in these we trusted.

Here is a prayer by Pierre de Chardin SJ, that encapsulates what this Camino was for me, which in every way embodies the journey of Lent, that is also bound in history and tradition.

Patient Trust

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.


We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.


And yet it is the law of all progress
 that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste.


Don’t try to force them on,
 as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
 acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
 Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
 in suspense and incomplete.

Some aspects of the dream were clear and easy to interpret, others were more clouded in a sense of mystery, wonder and concern. Try as I might to conjour up meanings, none of them sat in peace.

As ‘Due North’ takes flight, traverses oceans and hits foreign lands my dream is center stage again, and offering some more meaning. There is no obvious link to the album, the scenes and players in each script don’t interact or feature together, but somehow it has been a catalyst in the unraveling mystery of that night story that visited long ago.

I am heartened by the fact that God knows the big picture of my life, the backstories that are both linked to the present and traverse time in God’s imagination of my future. I am offered a hopeful expectation that I am known, held and safe.  As the songs of ‘Due North’ help me to explain my dream, what has been and what could be, leaving me to marvel at the interconnectedness of all things, I am offered courage, strength and hope for my journey.

Oh yeah! Ol’ mate Vol.2 is now available online via iTunes. Click the button below to purchase a copy for the sweet, heavenly price of 18.99 – first to find a bible verse with those numbers which relates to the album wins a kiss from Linda. Get on it.

A couple of months ago, as the weather started to grow warmer, the rose vine planted next to our front door was covered in brown aphids.  Then I discovered 2 other varieties of aphids taking over my chives and swan plants!

I was distraught!  I commenced a spraying program to kill them off,  taking the responsible approach by using an organic spray.  According to the experts at King Plant Barn aphids hide in the soil all winter and as the weather warms they climb the plants and tuck into the juicy sap provided by the new spring growth.  Apparently female aphids are born with an egg already in them making them the most prolific breeders I have ever seen.

Sure enough, to my torment 2 days after each spray they were back in force.  It became the battle of wills to the point of complete distraction.  I was dreaming about them and creeped out by the thousands of  little suckers overtaking my rose vine.  The battle was on!!

As I often discover, nature has a wonderful way of speaking to us if we are open to listening.  As the battle raged, I was reminded that it is often the small things in life that eat away at us and hinder our growth.  Those niggley things that if left unattended grow to the point where they influence us more than they should.

I love that term ‘the constant gardener’.  We always need to be constant and diligently, consistently tending our inner world to ensure it remains a place where the conditions are well suited for life and good healthy fruit.  Sometimes it’s a battle to maintain, sometimes it just requires minimal care but never to be completely neglected.

Anyway, after much anguish and diligence I triumphed!  I now have a vine full of red roses that farewell me at the start of every day and greet me when I come home at night.

- Khalil Gibran

This got me thinking about church.  Church can be a place we come on a Sunday, or it can be a community we are immersed in.  It can be an event, or it can be a home.

Whichever it is for us affects the ways in which we can expect to learn and grow.

AndyD