Remona Aly
Thursday 20 June 2024 Pause for Thought, BBC Radio 2A dog’s tale
Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2, Zoe Ball Breakfast Show
A dog’s tale
Script:
As you know, I’ve driven up to London from my little village in Kent, and often tell city slickers how proud I am to be a country bumpkin. Any given opportunity and I’m off for a walk, breathing in the vast blueness of an open sky, drinking in the earthy smell of rain-kissed fields, and dodging any rogue dog poops along the windy ways.
For I pass all sorts of four-legged friends and their owners on my country strolls – shaggy dogs, bull dogs, little yapper dogs that try to take on huge ones you could put a saddle on and ride.
One time, I passed a canine I’d never come across before. It was the most beautiful dog I’d ever seen in my life. Graceful, majestic, slender, its snowy fur gently rippling in the breeze. The owner told me it was a rare breed from ancient Egyptian times, and was even a celebrity, having starred in a Hollywood blockbuster.
I was transfixed, and asked, what was the name of this magnificent creature of the gods? “Dave,” came the reply. “Dave? You named him, Dave?” We both turned to look at Dave, standing nobly on the horizon.
I’ve realised over the years that things don’t always make sense, the jigsaw doesn’t always fit, the road doesn’t always turn where you expect.
I recall a broody couple, the perfect potential parents, who desperately yearned for a baby that never arrived. Yet through that denial, they became more beloved and devoted to each other than any two people I’d known.
I remember finding it hard to accept that someone as carefree and extroverted as me, fell into a dark, lonely place, but that bitter experience taught me to cherish happiness in ways I hadn’t tasted before.
“Why does the most exquisite rose have the sharpest thorns?” asks Hafez, the 14th century Persian Muslim poet.
I believe that sometimes the sweetest hope rises from the crush of hardship. Sometimes the deepest relief breaks through the burden of despair. Sometimes the most treasured joy can emerge from a shell of sorrow.
Perhaps not everything in life needs to make sense straight away, and not everything needs to fit together as we think it should, not least a majestic canine by the name of Dave.
To listen, click here Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2, Zoe Ball Breakfast Show