Some mornings, I just don’t feel like putting the first letter down on the page.

I used to write with a pencil….scratchy graphite on coarse paper, slow and …..now that I think about it…kind of sensual.

Not “sensual” like “this is such a forbidden thrill…..to scratch letters on paper….this kind of TURNS ME ON!!”…..more like “this really does engage my senses”.

Now, I type at a plastic keyboard in the morning….my face lit up by the computer screen, everything else in the house still dark.

Nothing too sensual about that.

And….some mornings are hard to get started.

But….like usual….I digress.

I buried another dog last night.

It wasn’t our dog.

It wasn’t even a dog that ever let me touch him….until I touched him to set him down into the hole I’d just dug.

Nate and Jenny came with me this time….and afterwards, after we’d explained a bit about death to Nate, explained the little bit that we understood about death, at least….Nate said, when we got back home, “That was FUN!”

I guess that it was fun to watch Daddy dig a big hole and drop the dog down into it.

I guess that’s fun?!

My neighbors are going through some hard stuff….cancer, mostly…..and I told them if they ever needed anything, when I was burying the first black dog, that they should call me.

When the second black dog got hit….probably because he was a grownup puppy and liked to take his naps in the middle of the road in a blind curve, I got another call to help bury another dog.

So….that’s how I found myself burying this black dog in an overgrown field with a light rain falling.

I guess that I’m glad that Nate wanted to go.

It’s good to see a parent trying to help somebody (outside the family)…. for a change.

I don’t think that there’s much that I could do to make my neighbor’s situation easier.

What do you do for somebody when it’s all hitting the fan like that?

Maybe digging a hole is the best I could do?

Nate dropped a little bouquet of flowers down on top of the grave when I was finished with my dog burial.

Jenny helped him make it….and, after asking me for 5 minutes if “I was done YET?” as I lifted another scoop of wet clay back down into the hole, he was pretty excited about being able to lay it on top of the fresh grave.

Those little purple flowers made it all seem more…..elegant….somehow.

It was a nice touch….and I’m glad Nate was excited about doing it.

Maybe you don’t figure out how precious life is until you see the other end of it all?

I take a lot for granted.

Maybe it’s just putting someone else’s dog down in a fresh hole?

I can’t read too much into everything.

Maybe I’m just sitting in the dark….typing?

Maybe that’s all that’s going on?

It was good to see Nate wanting to lay those flowers down.

It’s good for a parent to see a child care about something and someone else.

Maybe that’s what it’s all about.