Dear Friend,
I’ve been thinking of you, how are things in your world? It’s been one week since my last letter, I hope that it was a good week for you. How have you been fairing in this very wintery weather? It isn’t that I’m worried about you, I know how resilient you are. It’s just that this cold, wet, windy winter is supposed to be a long one, and I just hope that you are finding ways to stay warm and happy, as if the sunshine was over for tea, sitting in your kitchen every morning, noon and night.
The weather report last evening for this area (Marin County, CA) includes atmospheric rivers, sink holes, downed trees, lightning strikes, and floods. Still, because we have been in such a long drought, this rain is a wonderful thing. At least, that’s what I think, though I’ve not lost my home to flooding, nor have I ever driven my car into a sink hole or been struck by a falling tree or a bolt of lightning. Those are real and treacherous things to take seriously. I'm so sorry that so many have been suffering! This past summer, while house sitting in El Dorado County, I was grateful to have time to evacuate as a wildfire blazed out of control. Though that fire was human-set, the dry land and its resident creatures didn’t have a chance. So, I’m grateful for these rainy days! It seems to me that nature needs this water.
I didn’t intend for this letter to be so much about the weather! I guess I mentioned it because today is moving day and we’ll be dealing with crazy wind and rain as we drive away from Marin County.
My plan was to tell you about how all of our moving preparations went this week, and I wanted to let you know what to expect in the next few letters.
But now I suddenly want to let you know what is happening right this moment. I’m sitting in the living room on a black and white striped ottoman. To my right is a window. It is 4:45 am and still very dark outside. My laptop is on my lap and my feet are resting on the place where Winchester (our beautiful, gentle, kind, intelligent, silly, best friend, English Yellow Labrador Retriever) was helped to everlasting sleep. It’s the only place in this house that I will miss.
Winchester lived to be 13 ½ years old and was part of my life from the day he was born. HIs last few days were really tough, he wasn’t comfortable, he wasn’t going to get better, but he was a Lab and so he was treating each moment as if it was cause for a party. How could we ever let him go and say goodbye to that attitude? What a terribly difficult thing. The pet hospice sent a nurse to help us. It was March of 2020. Covid was just ramping up in Marin County. Without getting in to all of that, we are very grateful to Nurse Barbara for coming to help. And though we know that his spirit is free to wander, and that he will always be with us, I just wanted to spend a few moments where Winchester passed in this house to write the last thing that I’ll write in this house, on the very last morning that I will ever be in this house because in four hours, we will drive away from this house – and it will be for good!
Into the rain and weather of what may come. Nature isn’t there to make us comfortable. We either live or we don’t. It is up to us to do what needs doing and to be grateful that we can. And as Winchester taught me, every moment can be reason for a party. At least, that’s what I think.
Have a good week!
Gently Be,
Leslie
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