…and, unfortunately, death.

If you’ve read my other blog (now called “Where it’s @ !”), you’ll know that about three weeks ago, a friend of mine in Virginia passed away.

I found Steve’s obituary online last night. It included a picture of him, and he hadn’t changed looks wise from the last time I saw him. His hair was much shorter (it had been longer than most women’s hair when I met him) and greyer, but he still had his goatee and it was definitely the same man I worked with a decade earlier.

But, 47 is still too young to die, but Steve apparently accepted his fate and lived the rest of his life, however short it was.

The weekend after I learned of his death, I was walking down the street and just as I was going to cross Kelly at Danforth, a stray dog came up behind me and nudged me with his nose, then proceeded to cross Danforth, which was crowded with cars. I worried that the dog wouldn’t make it. He did and wandered off to destinations unknown.

I thought about the nose nudge for a couple of days afterwards. Maybe it was a sign, maybe not. Was it Steve trying to tell me everything’s okay now and to not be sad about his passing anymore? Was the dog crossing a busy street a metaphor for the trials Steve went through in his short lifetime. After making it safely to the other side, was the fact that the dog soon disappeared from my view a sign that his destination was nowhere I’d know about until the appropriate time?

This is speculation on my part, I know. I’ll have to ask Steve that someday… at the appropriate time.

That’s all from the Big Blue Couch.