Blaze for Days
“You have two choices,” the vet said. “You can either put him to sleep, or bring him tonight for emergency surgery, and he might not survive.” That was the day I brought him in for what I thought was a stomachache. I did not expect that diagnosis. We weren’t ready. I didn’t want him to […]
Heart Troubles: A Lamentation
George had stopped eating. Looking at him, it was hard to tell how thin he’d become. His white long-haired coat scattered with calico markings concealed how much weight he’d lost. Still, it was obvious he hadn’t touched the food in his dish. I was worried. George was born feral, an abandoned, but magnificent, kitten. I remember wearing him like a fur stole on my shoulder, when I begged my mother to let us adopt him. We already had two cats, an older Siamese and a formerly-stray black cat. Yet, after much pleading, my mom agreed to let us keep George. At
Saturday, Duboce Park
I noticed first his focus. It was as gentle and constant as the slow strokes of his hand, tousling the hair of his dog’s head. He was seated on the end of a bench, under a tree, there at the edge of Duboce Park on the first bright, warm and brilliant afternoon of the first day of San Francisco’s three-week October summer. The man was young. Immediately I knew… I don’t know how… that his dog was not. He stood, still in the over-warm day, uninterested in the activity around him, accepting… as I am sure he had for years of
When the tears fall
When the tears fall Empty and angry at everything and everyone,yet not knowing why. Then suddenly you realisethat the empty feeling is a hollow space in your heartwhere they used to live. The tears start to fall when the realisation settles in.They fall and fall,like rain in an April shower. If only grief came with a handbookexplaining why you feel the way you do,so it isn’t mistaken for boredom,restlessness,or the need to run towards something new. But sticking plasters never hold for long.The real emotion seeps through eventually. And then you realisethe emptiness,the longing,the sadness,the uncertainty,are all there because you miss
