grief

Every time my life settles down enough for me to return to regular blogging, crazy stuff happens.  First there was the sudden arrival of newborn baby Z. - we were called at 2:30 pm and by 4:30, Eric was picking him up at the hospital.  Since normally one gets more than umm...two hours to prepare for the arrival of a new baby, we were a little discombobulated. Then there was much back and forth insanity as the County and C. and K.'s family attempted to make possible a visit from across the US to our area.  We didn't know until last Friday whether it would happen - and all of a sudden it was.  …

While I was out of town this weekend, one of my friends lost her dog. As I read over the many caring comments on her Facebook page, it struck me how difficult it is to express condolences - especially on the loss of a pet. Like many others, I ended up simply saying "I'm sorry." The significance of the relationship between pet and person is often minimized, even though we know that the unconditional love supplied by a pet can do astonishing things for human mental and physical health. Personally, I don't believe animals have souls, but neither do I believe they are soulless automatons. Cats…