2/25/09:I found all of the discussion of love in the "Symposium" awakened a new awareness of the emotion. What is love? I believe that it is different for each of us on some level and yet universally the same ideology.
We love our pets but that doesn't extend their life expectancy to rival our own. Some of us even believe that we have found best friends or soul mates in our pets and yet we lose them so early and so often if you dare to love another pet after your initial heartbreak. This loss of love must be more common than some think if Dr. Sexson would ask a class to write about it and there are so many toughing responses and then there are the those of us who can't bare to write about it.
We love our family. But again, all the love in the world can't stop the reaper. Our hearts break again!
We find love in lovers and spouses and one more time...it could all be in vain.
What is this love thing? Why do so many write about it, talk about it, sing about it and dream about it ?
Why is such a painful thing be the center of philosophy, literature, history and art?
Because it's everything. Without it we have nothing.
Much Love,
Stacy

A beautiful decomposition.

2/16/09: I just wanted to share a really beautiful decomposition story. I am a veterinary technician. One year ago this past Oct. I was working in the Tom Minor basin south of Livingston on a huge ranch that borders Yellostone. Unfortunately two days before myself and the veterinarian that was working for arrived to castrate some yearling horses, the manager of the ranch had had to shoot a horse with a broken leg. The body of the horse was on a bluff about 300 yards away from the pens tha we were working in.
When we first arrived there were several coyotes feasting on the carcass. Shortly after we heard the coyote let out a cry and run off. A huge grey wolf came out of the timberline and began to get his share. We watched him through the binoculars for a while and then got back to work, he was breathtakingly beautiful. Then suddenly he trotted off into the trees. Next, a big black bear came out of the woods. He sat down to dinner. Now I wasn't doing any work at all, just watching this gorgeous bear when he let out a yelp and took off for a big boulder up the hill. Now what would make him run? A mama grizzly with two yearly cubs would do it. I couldn't believe it. There she was dining with her big babies. The cubs got a little excited so she had to remind them who eats first with a huge roar that I'll never forget. They settled down and were allowed back at the table as long as they watched their manners.
It was facinating to watch nature do it's thing in one afternoon. From that one unfurtunate creature so many others benefited.
That's the beautiful side of decomposition.

Bad Day

2/8/09: It was too beautiful of a weekend to have a bad day. I'll have to share from the archives...
I was at a veterinary technician conference in Fla. this past July. When the 8 hour session of pet nutrition came to a merciful end I headed for my truck and was on my way out of the parking lot of the hotel that hosted the conference. Oblivious to my surroundings and numb above the shoulders from 8 hours of "feeding the diabetic cat" in monotone, I didn't notice the police cars in the parking lot. I was the last in a line of cars trying to get through the traffic light and didn't make it. My windows were open to allow some of the Fla. heat to escape the cab of my truck therefore I immediately noticed the near collision that a huge black un-marked S.U.V. had with my truck as it zoomed past. The second vehicle of identical description came to a screeching halt next to my truck and deposited a flack jacket clad, buzz cut, gun drawn man. This gentleman proceeded to instruct me in a raised voice to "put it in park and get your head down, NOW! I obeyed these instructions. First, glancing around to realize that there were other gentlemen with bigger guns screaming at the occupants of a mini-van in the parking lot. Not good. An authoritative voice came over the radio on the shoulder of the "officer"? that had given me my instructions. This voice simply said "get rid of her now!" I became concerned about the use of the term "get rid of". However, the gentlman that was still standing at the side of my truck with one hand inside my truck and the other on a gun simply replied "traffic sir." Seconds later the officer instructed me to sit up and drive! "Do you understand me?!" he said. Oh I understood, I've never understood anything so clearly in my life. I drove.
When I got home I searched the news for some story in regards to this event...nothing. I spoke to a friend of mine on the local sherrifs dept. Nothing. I explained that these officers did not have any identifying initials on their clothing, no F.B.I, no A.T.F. no nothing. My friend suggested that I should stop looking for an explanation and be thankful that they hadn't had to get rid of me.
So maybe it wasn't such a bad day but at the time it sure felt like it qualified.

2/2/09: Ground Hog Day!! Things contitnue to go around and around just like the song that has been in my head since Friday. Puff the Magic Dragon is relentless. Even the grocery store...Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea and frolicked in the atumn mist in a land called Hanallee...