Diamond in the Sky

Twinkle, twinkle little star
 How I wonder what you are.
 Up above the world so high,
 Like a Diamond in the sky...

A few days after I wrote my post about our 8/9 visit in the healing garden at Dream Inn, Mt. Shasta City, my husband carried Diamond into the vet’s office, cradled him in his arms, and I played my hospice harp while he received the chemical that would grant him permission to leave his cancer-ridden and failing body and nudge him into the next world. I placed my bare foot on Lloyd’s leg and Diamond’s back while I played. As the vet announced that his heart had stopped, I was so overcome with the absolute power of the moment, I swooshed a strong and energetic glissando on my harp, praised God aloud, then stopped, awed by the transition of life energy from physical to spiritual.

Diamond went to his rest and peace on the strains of “Amazing Grace” and a pentatonic tune I’d composed for his healing after his last surgery. He’d always loved to lie under the piano – while I practiced it or the harp – so it was only right that music carry him into the next world.

The vet on duty seemed somewhat surprised…. yet, to my thinking, if I can play Hospice Harp for those humans dying and they & their families feel noticeably soothed, why not for our “younger brothers” in the animal life-wave?

We first met our beautiful dogs when they were six months old and due to be sent on to the next world the next day unless someone adopted them from the Maui Animal Shelter. Uh, that’d be us! 🙂 What to name the bigger of the two? His white patch was clearly the shape of a Diamond, so that was it: Diamond! And he was the Gem of our lives! His little brother, almost feminine in contrast with his pink nose and amber eyes…. I so wanted to name him Ginger since we lived in The Islands and he had the beautiful gingery color, but it just wasn’t right for a boy. So my husband came up with the “masculine form” of Ginger: Ginjo! And so  it is.

Some years later, I noted Diamond’s white patch no longer looked like a diamond, but rather a star. It wouldn’t be until a few days ago that I would think of this “Twinkle Little Star” nursery tune, originally a French folk song, and that incorporates both the Star and the Diamond in its imagery. There is a hole in our hearts where once we connected with Diamond’s tangible presence; now it is filled with memories and reminiscences, a few tears, and loads of smiles. Indeed, Diamond is in the sky now and twinkles like a star in our hearts.