Missing Sunshine

     It's been a year.
     Seems like a lot's happened.
     Or maybe it's only that "the curtain falls down and everything goes dark, an' that means time passes", as Andy Griffith said.

     And I know she was only a dog. But she was my dog.
     And it still really, really hurts.

     There's not really much else to say.
     I survived two more semesters of school, with straight-A's intact, and got to know some folks from the BCM a little bit.
     And there's been Rags. She's sitting on my arms right now as I'm typing this paragraph, half-asleep and purring. She's a very good cat, and I wish I could take her to Tahlequah with me. She even sometimes obeys when I tell her to do something, which is proof she's a wonderful cat, since as everyone knows, cats are their own masters and will only occasionally do something for someone else out of altruistic motives, and only because they really like that person.
     Banjo and Captain are all right, but neither is a real Race-of-Josephy dog. Banjo is extremely timid and spends most of the day hiding under the bed, and then exuberantly bounding all over the place too overstimulated to think when he's happy. It's like he has two settings; Petrified and Ecstatic, with no in-between. Captain is super friendly to everyone and loves to be petted, but doesn't aspire to any great ideals.

     The backyard is full of half-grown goat bucks, cats who spend their time either playing together or lounging as only felines can, chickens of all colors and sizes and ducks, whose very existence is entertaining. So that's better than an empty yard. But it's not quite the same.

     Yeah, life keeps going on. There's still work to do, projects that need to be completed, small bits of joyfulness, deep places of frustration and loneliness, and mostly the rather flat expanse of everyday experiences. That's not to say that it gets any easier; it seems like things get harder the longer you travel. But you get through everything, leaning heavily on the Lord's help and the prayers of other siblings in Christ. And you kind of just try to take it one hour at a time, and then when that hour is gone, start over with the next. Guess 2 Corinthians 12:9 could kind of be a summary of this last year, as well as Philippians 3:12-14.

   It's just kind of been a hard, long week, with the Fourth of July and most of the family sick, then the one-year anniversaries of Skeet and Sunny, and trying to get everything ready for camp and then everything for school.