Good Friday

Last Friday was my second day off of work since 2012 commenced. It turned out to be a very full and strange day.

The temperature plummeted down to 40° Thursday night, so I woke to a cold house and grey skies. Friday morning, I made some coffee and sat in from of the computer and looked at Facebook. The Chicago Half-Marathon page had posted this status:

If you want to start running, you should...

I realize now that the way I read it that morning was most certainly not the way it was intended. But it was like a thunderbolt out of the sky that I took to mean literally: Get off your ass and go run, you mope.

So I finished my coffee and laced up for possibly my fastest eight miles to date; the fading azaleas standing in stark contrast to the gloomy skies. Chilled to the bone back at home, I sipped on some water and, on a whim, texted a friend I hadn't seen in a long time, then got in the shower without waiting for a response. The water set to just under scalding, I scrubbed myself raw in the shower and thawed out. The friend replied and we made plans to do supper.

I groomed myself and the house and was picking up my purse to run some errands when another text came in. This one told of the rapid decline of a pet, and the need to put her down. Having never been through this before, the action was instinctual. I texted I would be there, and I went.

I've never been present for the death of any mammal - canine, feline, or human. I was there out of equal parts innocent curiosity and an overwhelming need to support, to love.

It was fast and peaceful.

Afterwards, we went to my friend's home to bury her. The weather had warmed considerably, the clouds had parted, and the sun had come out. In the woods behind my friend's home, four women and myself set to the task of digging the hole and laying the pet to rest. We threw back a shot of tequila in her honor (she was a sassy ole gal of a dog) and parted ways.

That night, I ate supper with James and my friend and we talked and drank and ate. I looked around my home and I thought about the strangely beautiful world we live in.