So it goes...

There have been a million reasons as to why my voice has been missing here for the past month… however, there is one reason that has left me no choice but to cry aloud, if just for this moment.

Because of time and distance, because of circumstance and solitude, I’ve seen a number of friends fade over the past decade. It has been my fault as much as anyone else’s for these detachments, and many times I simply count on the possibility to rekindle those relationships in the future… but the older I get, the more I seem to realize that the souls under my own roof - those within my grasp that I can hold ever so tightly as to feel their breath - they are the ones I will always rely on to get by… I count on them to help me survive these most trying of days. They are my sanity, my levity, my gravity. They have been, and always will be, the sustenance to my heart, my dreams… my everything. Above all else, they remain. They remind me what truly matters.

Under this roof, my wife and my child serve as the inspiration for my every breath. However, over the years, we’ve surrounded ourselves as a little family with the loving presence of a few other faces, who became not only friends, but also family members – one longer than all of the others. For nearly as long as I have known my wife, I’ve been accompanied on adventures by what was at first just a sweet little kitten we named Prelude… over time he quickly grew to be a charming pet, and he endured as the dearest of friends.

Yesterday, I lost him as well.

I feel more broken than I have in a long time... I realize an ode to a pet, however loving, may never be well-received, but I have lost a friend of the truest kind - one who did nothing but listen and love - and it's left me in pieces.

When I think of him, I’m torn apart knowing this was my decision. I’m torn apart remembering him trying to bury his face and hide as much of himself as he could in my wife’s arms just moments before. I’m torn apart thinking how I much I tried to convince him at his very final moment that that my arms were the safest place to be…

There is no need for reassuring words that this was the right thing to do, that this was best for all of us, or that on the horizon lay a better place for him or brighter times for me.

There is no need to remind me that it’s only because life is worth it, that we suffer so when the lights dim for good…

After all, our time is short, and it would be best spent holding on to those that remain… ever so tightly.