A year ago today...

So the sun came up again today.  The first I saw of the sky was indigo blue, with a ribbon of first gold light.  I read my tribute to Klondike from a year ago, and remembered that the sun came up "pink and gold" on the day that I had to meet the impossible task of saying goodbye.  I sat here at the desk and waited for
today's pink and gold, and it has come.  The dogs huddled around me in what truly seemed like a "knowing" way this morning...Harold looking at me intently and Maggie resting her paw on my leg, and we watched January 9, 2015 dawn, pink and gold, and recalled a year ago.  I don't know how I got out of bed that day knowing what was to unfold.  It seemed impossible to say goodbye to that dog.  

What does it even mean that a year has gone by?  Years used to see like giant spans of time.  Now they seem like some sort of short interval that I wish I would take a lot longer.  They all said it would be like this as you age, this time speeding up thing.  

  A week ago last year was full.  We said goodbye to my dear Uncle Luke a year ago yesterday, on Dad's 85th birthday.  That was, and is, surreal.  He was really my one uncle who I knew and loved, and who loved me.  My Mother's only brother, I was the first baby "GG" ever held.   I really had bet on him always being "out" there as someone who would have my back if times got really tough.  Now he's been gone a year too.  

Dad turned 86 yesterday.  He's a handsome, funny, sometimes curmudgeonly, loving, loyal, independent person.  There are still so many stories I don't know about him.  A book with many chapters - and many untold I'm sure.  I feel so grateful that we live nearby each other, that he is having time now with my adult and almost adult children, and me at this stage of my life.  

Happy birthday Dad.  

I miss you Luke.

I think of you everyday Klondike.

Morning has broken.