A Most Beautiful Burning Bush

Lucy continues to improve.  The prednisone seems to be helping.  Of course, anyone who has every taken that particular steroid knows that it makes you both hungry and thirsty.  For Lucy, who is already ravenous, the addition of a steroid makes her want to eat 24 hours a day. And her thirst insures that no toilet in our house is safe.  With her already chubby frame, the last thing Lucy needs is more of an appetite.  But a blood test she had last week revealed that she has a very low functioning thyroid, ergo, she puts on weight.  She'll have to take thyroid supplements.  We should have guessed something like that when we picked her up at the breeder 5 years back.  She was 7 weeks old and shaped like a Yellow Labrador soccer ball.

In regards to this blog's title, we planted the burning bush in the pic in the summer of 1974, the year we moved into our house.  We weren't up on the usual uses of burning bushes, (besides, of course being the location of the voice of God).  Most people plant them by their houses as foundation hiding shrubbery or create burning bush hedges and prune and shape them annually.  We just stuck ours in the middle of our side yard and let it grow and grow. Using our basketball hoop for judgment purposes, I would say our burning bush now stands 9 feet tall and is at least twice that distance wide.  It's a real Shaquille O'Neal of a shrub.  People comment on its magnificence, having never seen such a monstrous burning bush.  With the attention it receives, I though it worthy of an analogy, sort of like the "Giving Tree" in Shel Silverstein's little classic book.

I think our burning bush could be the symbol of a human spirit both well made and well aged.  It is rooted solidly to the earth and yet wide open to the sky.  Most often it stolidly exists, but on occasion it shows its beauty.  It has been shaped by the warmth of sun, the nurturing of the rain, and the tough love of the snow and wind.  No man forced its shape upon this burning bush.  Only the hand of God showed it how to be.

I kind of like that analogy, but you know, if you look carefully at the picture of our burning bush, you will see that there's a little niche that's formed in its side, just perfect for kids to crawl into.  So if it doesn't make it as analogy, that's fine, but if you know any pre-school kids looking for a fort or a hideout--send them over!