September 12, 2010
“When angels visit us, we do not hear the rustle of wings, nor feel the feathery touch of the breast of a dove; but we know their presence by the love they create in our hearts.”
Yes, I wrote about an ice cream truck just a couple of months ago, and I’m not getting lazy, I promise!
On Sunday, I attended a beautiful pet memorial service at Colorado State University. It was the culmination of several exhausting days I spent at various events that included a pet fashion show, a three day conference and the Bow Wow Buddies Foundation K-9’s Against Cancer walk. Functioning on a few short hours of sleep, with a body and mind weary from all of the activities, I pondered on the drive to Ft. Collins, not quite sure what I must have been thinking a week earlier when I asked if I could read Lessons From Cain. Of course the drive went much faster than I had anticipated, and before I knew it, we were pulling into the parking lot.
The Animal Cancer Center is an amazing place, and even though anxiety arises each time I visit, it provides a strange sort of comfort. Memories and experiences that have been tucked away, surface every time I walk through those doors, and though it sounds strange, I miss it there.
Contrary to how I felt earlier, I made it through the reading, clutching a favorite photograph of Cain and me, its corners tattered and worn with time, glancing occasionally into a room full of eyes that shared the same story as mine.
As the ceremony came to a close, we made our way outside, and as the officiant read “Don’t Stand at my Grave and Weep”, several doves were released into a sunny blue sky. I watched as they soared toward the clouds, returning and circling above us before flying away, and then…
We turned to go back inside, and an ice cream truck went by. For the love of Cain always.
