Of a Crib, a Collie and cherished companions

As mentioned in other blogs, my husband loved to walk his collie. He also loved all things Christmas.

Mornings in December meant that he could visit the outdoor crib at the local convent school. He would pause in his perambulations to spend a moment with the Infant Jesus and fall in love with the Nativity Scene all over again. The collie would stand on her hind legs, place her front paws gently at the edge of the table and nudge Baby Jesus’ feet with her nose. That done, she would sit patiently till my husband moved on.

Mother Superior, possibly wary of itinerant trespassers and in the interest of her property, was not amused. This moved me to remind her that the original manger was ‘peopled’ by livestock and that legend has it that all animals kneel at midnight on Christmas Eve!

It puzzles me that those who are supposedly close to God do not see, feel or experience the whimsical side of our Maker’s personality. Nature demonstrates the glory of creation but it also throws up many and delightful comical aspects, as those who know so will readily testify.

A priest I had the privilege to know shared this sense of whimsy. He wrote a droll ‘post-card to a duck’ for my scrap-book. It goes:

Madam,

There is one blot on your fair name and one only! You have filled the cricket field with a word of dread. Why your egg, more than any other, should have been chosen to signify by its shape the most ignominious numeral in the multiplication table, I fail to comprehend.

A duck’s egg is no more round than the egg of a pigeon or of a hen – and indeed, it is far less round than that of a goose or of a turkey. Yet it was upon you that the wise humorist fastened; it was you who were set apart to humiliate those who failed to score.

For the rest, you are the friend of man. In life you waddle around with the most charming insouciance, and when the fatal moment arrives, your gift of blending melodiously with sage and onions is beyond compare.

Peas be with you!

Stern and seemingly unapproachable, Msgr. E had an unsuspected ‘soft’ side. And though I must remember him for his sterling advice and guidance, it is the ‘postcard’ which recalls him most gladly to mind.