Featured Article

Mazzie Come Home!

By Janine Miller-DeLany

 

A few days ago, our sweet puppy, Mazzie, stealthily slipped out our back gate while my husband, Jere, was absorbed in his music and transporting brush from our yard. Mazzie loves to chase bunnies! It’s evident she was born for this! It is her greatest passion and gives her boundless energy. She’s usually happy to bypass a morning walk and needs a fair share of encouragement to try an afternoon walk. But oh, if there’s an opportunity to chase a bunny, suddenly she moves as though she’s just had 3 energy drinks.

Now, normally, on such an occasion as this, Jere and I would spend the next 2 and a half hours chasing her around a 2 mile radius of our house. It’s become quite a game to her, and she LOVES it! She darts in and out of the neighbor’s bushes happily hiding from us and then magically appearing again if we’ve lost track of her. We usually end up thoroughly exhausted and recognize all the while that she will only let us catch her when she is good and tired and ready to come home.

This time was different, however. We finally got smart and put a GPS tracker on her. Sure, we chased her for about 45 mins. But then we thought, hmmm, perhaps we should just let her have some fun and we’ll sit back and just keep an eye on her whereabouts through our phones. You see, the tracker updates her location at our request and we can see exactly where she is (at least momentarily) by looking at the app on our phone.

So we decided to let Mazzie have her fun this time. And we sat down to eat dinner, though a bit nervously. We had a pretty strong feeling that she knew where home was and we wanted to see if she would return on her own when she was tired and ready for food and water. Now, Mazzie is a beagle. Beagles are natural runners and hunters; it’s not typically in their nature to just come when called as in many of those more eager-to-please breeds. Hence, most of our research simply suggests at least five-foot high fencing to prevent these escapades. Basically, our little experiment felt a tad bit risky.

We tried to enjoy our dinner but, I confess, we were both a little uneasy. It was evening, soon it would be dark, and trying to find her small black frame, possibly in the woods and creek behind our home, would be almost impossible.

So we sat and ate, periodically checking the GPS for reassurance that she was still fairly nearby. About an hour and a half after her romp began, Jere walked outside to see if she was in sight and looking tired yet. Relief flooded through me as I watch him walk in with a very thirsty puppy, exclaiming, “look who decided to come home!” He noted that at his first call she came happily running to greet him. Whew!! Our experiment yielded our greatest hope! She did know HOME and she would eventually decide to return!

A tiny glimmering of memory has returned to you and will not leave you to the chaos you seem to prefer. It will keep calling you to acknowledge it and let it grow. It will tug at your heart in the most gentle of ways. Its whisper will be heard within your thoughts. Its melody will play within your mind. “Come back, come back,” it will say to you. “Come home, come home,” it will sing. You will know there is a place within yourself where you are missed and longed for and safe and loved. A little peace has been made room for in the house of your insanity. (ACOL C:10.32)

I can only imagine that Mazzie enjoyed following her bliss all the more, because she knew what we didn’t know she knew. She knew where home was. And she stayed fairly close so she couldn’t get lost.

Do you ever wonder, if we stayed a little closer to home in our hearts, whether that would help us to savor and enjoy this life experience all the more? You dwell not here, but in eternity. You travel but in dreams while safe at home. Give thanks to every part of you that you have taught how to remember you. (ACIM TX:12.76)

After all, Home, Love Itself, is always there tracking us and happily waiting for our return. Can we too give ourselves permission to stay close and return home when we are tired and need to replenish from this adventure we call life?

Love Itself gave me this message:

Return to Me. 

For in your release of your attachment to the body, the mind, and your preconceived beliefs, there do you feel the weight of earthly cares and forces lift from your being. 

There do you find a peace that passes all understanding and an awareness of love that never ends.

As you stay with Me, patient in your trust of what will be revealed to you, does it dawn upon you, a knowing that you exist in a realm of infinite possibilities. 

Each is there for your choosing and immediately available upon your acceptance.

As you return to Me, each moment, do you choose again the life you wish and the heaven you wish to see. For it is always and now, ever here for you.

You need only allow yourself to see and make your choice to come Home to Me.