Lucy is gone. She died this weekend. Lucy is Susan's dog - a "rescue" dog - who was truly rescued by Susan through the unconditional love she poured out to her. I see Susan now in the big chair with Lucy in her lap. The photo is of her son, Jack, and Lucy - the only one I could find in my collection. I am always at a loss for words when a death occurs. So this morning I have resorted to a couple of verses from a poem by John O'Donohue entitled "For Grief."

When you lose someone you love,/Your life becomes strange,/The ground beneath you gets fragile,/Your thoughts make your eyes unsure;/And some dead echo drags your voice down/Where words have no confidence./ Your heart has grown heavy with loss;/And though this loss has wounded others too,/No one knows what has been taken from you,/When the silence of absence deepens.

All of us have lost pets, but only the one who has suffered the loss knows what that loss means. I know that once before Susan "lost" Quincy - a "loan" to me and Bob when Bob needed Quincy most and then a companion for me when I needed one most. A love offering beyond description. Thank you, Susan. My heart goes out to you in this time of grieving.

There is a lesson here. Again I turn to John O'Donohue. Excerpt from To Learn From Animal Being:

Stranded between time/Gone and time emerging/We manage seldom/to be where we are:/Whereas they are always/Looking out from/ The here and now./May we learn to return/And rest in the beauty/Of animal being./Learn to lean low,/Leave our locked minds/And with freed senses/Feel the earth/Breathing with us.