I read a touching story contributed for Sylvia Browne’s book “All Pets Go To Heaven” about a big blonde labrador retriever named Chance who had passed, and how he’d pulled strings from the Other Side to bring his grieving owners to another dog like him to take his place in their home. It was a fascinating story, but my favorite part of the anecdote is a poem from the submitter of the story.

“I am attaching a poem that I wrote; for about a week each morning I would wake up, and I had more and more of this poem in my head. Well, I think Chance sent it to me to write; in fact, I know he did. Thanks to Sylvia and reading her books for so long, I have no doubt that Chance is home, with us, and waiting for us to join him when our time comes.
I’m Still Here
Your heart has been heavy since that day —
The day you thought I went away.
I haven’t left you I never would —
You just can’t see me, though I wish that you could.
It might ease the pain that you feel in your heart —
The pain that you’ve felt since you’ve believed us to part.
Try and think of it this way, it might help you see —
That I am right there with you and always will be.

Remember the times we were in the yard,
You could not always see me yet I hadn’t gone far.

That’s how it is now when you look for my face —
I’m still right beside you filling my place.

I find it to be so very sad,
That seeing and believing seem to go hand in hand,
The love and the loyalty, the warmth that I gave,
You felt them, did not see them, but you believed just the same.

I walk with you now like I walked with you then —
My pain is now gone and I lead once again.
My eyes always following you wherever you roam —
Making sure you’re okay and you’re never alone.

Our time was too short yet for me it goes on —
I won’t ever leave you, I’ll never be gone.
I live in your heart as you live in mine —
An enduring love that continues to shine.

The day will come and together we’ll be
And you’ll say take me home boy, and once again I will lead.

Until that day comes don’t think that I’ve gone —
I’m here right beside you, and my love it lives on.”

I think it’s an old Cherokee saying (I could be wrong about the source, I just don’t remember) that goes, “There is no death — there is merely a change of worlds.” It’s an interesting point that the poem (or, Chance himself) brings up; we teach our babies object permanence as one of the earliest lessons. We play peek-a-boo, we play “Where’s Baby/Mommy/Daddy?”, so that the baby knows that just because it can’t see a person or object doesn’t mean the person/object is gone. And yet, that’s all we believe as adults. For many people, if we can’t see it, we have a really hard time believing it exists. But there is so much more than meets the eye. (And now I have the Transformers theme song in my head.)