Have you not heard, "A dog is a man's  best friend?" I'm sure you have. At the outset let me declare that a dog is NOT my best friend, UNLESS you spell dog backwards. Yes, God is my best friend. However, with regard to creation, i.e., among creatures and non-creatures, a dog is not even close to the top of my list of friends. 

I don't use the term "friend" lightly or choose my friends without considerable due process. Frankly, my friends are few even when non-human entiies are included which constitute most of my friends. True, I am friendly towards many people, who are not my friends. I have not chosen them to be my friends and it is clear to me that they have not chosen me to be their friend. To repeat, I am friendly with many people and things who are not my friends. Being foolish does not make a person a fool. Neither does being friendly make a person a friend.

However, there is no question in my mind or doubt about my friend relationships. At the top of my friend's list is myself. Actually, God is second not because he is less than I am or a lesser friend than I am to myself,  but I was not able to be a friend of God's until I became a friend of myself. This is not to say that God had not chosen me as a friend. After becoming a friend to myself I became aware that I was on His friends' list before He was on my friends' list. God first loved me but I didn't know it until I befriended and loved myself.

Next on my friends' list are certain people. This is a short list that includes "My Most Significant Other," before she was transitioned to immortality, members of my primary family that consist of my siblings and seven other people. To repeat, I am friendly with many people, but friend does not describe these relationships. Even "friendly" is not the proper term to be applied in describing my relationship with the billions of people on Planet Earth. Even the term "acquaintance" is inappropriate to use in describing my relationship with them. We all share space on Planet Earth during our mortal existence but, for the most part, that is the extent of our relationship or lack thereof.

Next on my friends' list is celebration. I celebrate life - spirituality, including worship, prayer and meditation, nature, intellectual pursuits, economic resources, music, including singing and composing music, creative writing, work, play, exercise and serving in many ways, times and places.

Next on my friends' list is silence that includes contemplation and communion. These are my quiet times when I engaged in the practice of heightened spirituality.

Allthough I consider all creation to be sacred and sense that I am connected with everything and all things, a dog lags behind a deer, my favorite animal, insofar as my friendliness towards  creatures are concerned.

My intention here is not so much as to suggest that people who have dogs as their best friends should end their relationships. But for me, as indicated earlier, a dog is NOT on my list of friends. To reiterate "spell dog backwards" and you have my best friend. I wonder if those who first referred to "a dog as being man's best friend" did not mean to say when you spell dog backwards you have  man's best friend. I am of the opinion that something got lost in that translation. Among things earthbound "I am my own best friend."

Copyright 2011 by Uriah J. Fields