Saturday, 17 May 2008 by Paul Dubuc.

Today is a very sad day in our household. We lost a special friend and family member. Our 15 year old Australian Terrier, Sheila (that is my son holding her in the picture), took her last trip to the vet today. She had been getting us ready for this for over a year now. She had diabetes for the last five years and her health has steadily deteriorated since then. Last year before Easter she became very sick and I was sure we’d lose her then but she recovered and gave us one more year. Though her eyesight and hearing were almost gone and she didn’t have much energy, she still liked to be held and have her back scratched. She no longer greeted us when we’d come home from work, but she seemed to know we were there. She couldn’t climb stairs but seemed content enough to eat and sleep and wander around the house or back yard bumping into things. She was always able to find her food and water and her bed when she needed them. There was nothing wrong with her nose.

In spite of all her ailments it’s been hard to let her go. We hoped she would go on her own, but when her insulin supply ran out the decision was put into our hands. The drug company stopped making the type of insulin that we were using for her over a year ago and we bought up all that we could find before it became unavailable. Switching her over to another type could have caused her a lot of problems. We didn’t want to put her through that on top of everything else she suffers with so today we took her to the vet and were with her as she passed on calmly and peacefully.

Good bye old friend. We got you as a pup when our kids were young and they grew up with you. You are a part of many happy memories that we have of those years. Now the kids are grown and gone from our home and we are very sad to have to say good bye to you. You added so much fun and unexpected entertainment to the mix of our lives. If I slept in too late you would barge into my room greeting me with happy barking and jump up on the bed to lick my face. You liked to play fetch with the tennis ball, but not outside. That was strictly an indoor game. Outside you would run around and play with the kids, the long fur around your face swept back by the breeze as you ran. You were cute and cuddly but no lap dog, always on the go, full of energy until your later years (but you never stopped being cute and cuddly).

During the most depressing years of my life, when I was going though great difficulties, you were my companion on many late night walks that were full of prayers and tears and I shall never forget those times. Thank you for helping me get through them. Our late walks got to be such a habit that you wouldn’t go to bed until I did no matter how late I stayed up. You were there with me in case I needed a walk. Most nights I did, though sometimes I just felt like I needed to reward your patience. I especially remember the one glorious night just before Christmas when we happened to wander off our usual course for some reason and found one of the streets in our neighborhood lined for a long way with brightly lit luminaries. It was so beautiful, such a blessed experience that so easily could have been missed. As you got older our walks got slower, less frequent, and shorter until a walk to the corner was about all we could manage. Still, my walks won’t be the same without you.

I don’t know if dogs go to heaven, but it sure seems like that is the place from which they are sent to us. They give us so much love and acceptance in return for so little in the way of basic care and feeding. It’s no wonder we become so attached to them that it hurts so much to let them go. There’s a short little prayer that says, “Lord, make me the kind of person that my dog thinks I am.” That says a lot. The things we learn from our dogs could make us much better people.

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Monday, 24 March 2008 by Paul Dubuc.

In all of my life I have never had to have an internal surgical procedure. That changed in late February. I guess I was overdue. I discovered that I needed to get a couple of hernias patched. These days this surgery is considered a low risk, outpatient procedure and I had a lot of confidence in the surgeon and the surgical method he would use so I wasn’t terribly worried or scared. Still, finding out for the first time that you are going to be laid out on a table, knocked out for a few hours and… was a little disconcerting. I’ll spare you the medical details. Anyone who has been through this knows them already. Those who haven’t probably don’t care to know them. I’m more interested in looking at the spiritual side of the experience: how to make the best of it. Read on if you’re interested.

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Friday, 12 October 2007 by Paul Dubuc.

I’m well into the Fall quarter at ATS again this year. This could be my last Fall quarter. I have only 5 classes to finish before finishing my degree. After that? God knows. I’ve been thinking about training to be a so called “spiritual director.” (I think “mentor” would be a better word than “director”). But I don’t want to think too far ahead. I’m enjoying my current studies very much. This quarter I have a class in Christian Ethics. I was happy to learn that the class focuses more on the foundations of virtue and character than it does on issues and making ethical decisions. This is important. Who we are is at the root of what we do and what we do speaks louder than what we say. This emphasis fits well with my major in spiritual formation. The course has added four good books to my current reading list: Kingdom Ethics (Stassen and Gushee), Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Church (Merrill), Rethinking Christ and Culture (Carter) and Political Visions and Illusions (Koyzis). All very interesting reading. I have a bunch of writing to do that will probably keep me away from this blog for a while (we’ll see). Read the rest of this entry »

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Thursday, 31 May 2007 by Paul Dubuc.

I turned 50 years old a couple of weeks ago. My friends at work bought me lunch. I took this past week off from work to celebrate and spend time with friends and family. My parents came out to visit for a week. My daughter Jessica and son-in-law Lucas drove in for the weekend. My son Bryan was home from college. My brother John, who lives in Arizona, surprised me by popping in one morning for breakfast and staying for a few days. We had great fun playing games, riding bikes, watching movies and playing tennis. Mary Beth’s parents came down for dinner on Sunday. Then lots of very nice people surprisingly showed up at what I thought would be a small cookout in my back yard. Good thing we had plenty of food ☺. My wife, Mary Beth, who planned all this, is a truly wonderful woman. Thanks, everyone! It’s such a great blessing to have family and friends like you!

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Saturday, 30 December 2006 by Paul Dubuc.

Some very nice people at Bethel Church are working on an Advent devotional calendar for 2007 and asked me to write something for one of the days. This reflection on what was probably the saddest, and best, Christmas that I have ever had is my contribution. I’m looking forward to seeing what the others have written.

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Tuesday, 19 December 2006 by Paul Dubuc.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling that goes with sending your last paper off in e-mail and saying, “I’m done” with another quarter at Ashland Seminary. That was early Friday morning for me. I was exhausted. I’ve finished two more courses in my seminary education, both very interesting and challenging.
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Wednesday, 18 October 2006 by Paul Dubuc.

I’m happy to be going back to seminary this Fall. The break from studying over the Summer was nice; especially since it was such a busy summer.

I’m taking two interesting classes at the Ashland Seminary campus this quarter: History of Christian Spirituality and Emergent Spirituality. If your wondering what Emergent (Christian) Spirituality is all about, you’re not alone. There are 5 other fellow students in this class wondering along with me. We have an excellent teacher, we’re reading some interesting books and having a good conversation. You might be able to catch a peek at some of it here. I have a lot of reading and writing to do, but it’s all good.

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Friday, 11 August 2006 by Paul Dubuc.

The third great event of this Summer (after Jessica and Bryan’s graduations and Jessica and Lucas’ wedding [See July 22]) was celebrating my Dad and Mom’s 50th wedding anniversary. We had a great vacation in Camillus, NY with this celebration as the high point. Thanks to the great planning and hard work of my brother and sister-in-law, everyone had a wonderful time. We had a great dinner with lots of extended family and friends at a very nice little Polish restaurant in Solvay. The next day Mom and Dad renewed their wedding vows (for another 50 years) at the Sunday morning church service.I took an extended vacation and spent about 10 days with them altogether. I even enjoyed helping them with a few things around the house; getting them off AOL and onto a real ISP and tackling a few needed plumbing projects. Now they think of me fondly whenever they flush the basement toilet. Read the rest of this entry »

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Saturday, 22 July 2006 by Paul Dubuc.

I think that July 22 was the 2nd happiest day of my life. My daughter, Jessica, married a great guy: Lucas Seitz. We all had a wonderful time at the wedding and reception. You can see a sampling of wedding pictures below. Read the rest of this entry »

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