Absent friends...

Meterologists will tell you that those streaks that appear between clouds, (also thought to be sun beams) are really just shadows cast by clouds amongst the water vapor illuminated by the setting sun.

Perhaps...but when I stand on that particular rock, high in the mountains and look west into that sunset, to me they are reminders of absent friends. That glorious light disrupted by a space where something should be, and is not.

It is important, at least to me, to pause in the everyday rush to remember those friends that are gone. Kevin died too soon, even when he seemed to be better. David took his life because he couldn't see what we could. Hal left recently, as did Anita. There was the little boy I rescued from the hit-and-run, who died from pneumonia in the hospital, his heart just not strong enough for the effort. My friend Keith who died of cancer, and yet had more life in him than any one person I have ever known.

I can see their faces, hear their voices, smile when I remember their laughs, and almost stop breathing when I remember them standing right there...

I am only afraid on one thing on this whole earth, and that is losing my best friend. I cannot even write about that...

I shall make a trip soon to that rock, and stand their to watch the sun rise, to think about all there is to come. And I shall stay by that rock, and stand on it as the sun sets, and remember all those who have gone before me, and call their names in my mind, and wish them well.

Mustang