Hopscotch Blog #4: I’ve Done My Share -Selfish or Generous Thinking?

I’m recuperating right now. After my third surgery for back tumors, I’m a sight to
behold. I’m wearing an Elizabethan collar to keep me from getting to the stitches and
pulling them out. After the surgery, I suffered a pretty bad infection. Ma’m and I were at the animal hospital late one night and then back to my vet the next day. (If any of you out there know how to help fight non-malignant, but very big tumors in dogs, please let me know.)

Ma’m says I’m a very good patient, especially when she’s around. Wouldn’t you know it but Ma’m is a poor sight also! The other evening she was doing her power-walk (without me) and her knee snapped. Pop! Just like that! A Rice Krispies snap, crackle, and pop! So, H had to take her to the emergency room and now she is wearing a leg brace and is on pain killers ‘til we see if she needs surgery.

Unlike me, Ma’m is a poor patient. But I’ve been staying at her side. We are a sorry-
looking pair. Elizabethan collar on me; leg brace on her. I’m bumping into everything
and she is hobbling noisily around the house. When we take the stairs to our bedroom,
I’m clashing against the stairway banister and she is thumping her crutch on the floor. If the other two housemates are sleeping, well, too bad.

Ma’m told me last night, during our prayer time, that she appreciates my loyalty and
dedication when she is not well. I simply won’t let her out of my sight. And she watches
over me as well when I’m infirm -as I am now. Ma’m says H and A are wonderful aunts because they take care of me when Ma’ m is at work. They never say, ‘enough is enough’.

So I asked Ma’m, ‘when is enough, enough? Can I ever say, I’ve done enough for
someone? I’ve done my share?’

‘Hoppy, you are such a good dog; you and all your canine buddies never stop giving to
your human companions. You never say, ‘I’ve done enough.’  Ma’m says that humans
can learn from us. Bravo! I’m doing a Snoopy whirl at this point and my collar knocks
over Ma’ m’ s candle stick.

Ma’m says that to claim I’ve done enough is to put a circle around one’s love, to limit it
and keep it confined. It also says we judge others whom we think have not done as much as we have. God’s love is endless; no limits-God cannot do enough.

We humans can learn plenty from dogs says Ma’m.

“To whom much is given, much will be expected,” said the Lord. Not half-way
measures, not what one determines as the ‘fair share” in relation to others. But the deep, loving, giving, giving, giving.