I was looking in the mirror the other day and I asked, "Where did all this gray hair come from and why does it seem like it grew in overnight?" Then, I stared at my reflection and thought, "Who are you? Where are you?" Instantly, a few things popped in my thoughts. Tired Restless Brave Faithful Honest Uncertain Happy Silly Sad Frustrated Inspired All of those are true emotions based on how crazy life has been. With life, there has been changes and with changes, I'm no longer the same person I was a year ago, a month ago, heck, even a day ago. When I first moved out to Oregon, I missed "home".  I hated that I had to say goodbye to my best friend, my twin sister as well as others who were such a huge part of my life. At times, I think my dogs got tired of me telling them all of my troubles or having dance parties with them. They would sometimes roll their eyes and I'm almost certain I could hear them say, "I sure hope she doesn...

I was so optimistic about getting back into the creative part of "me" until a storm blew through. Some storms are foreseen  but others totally catch us by surprise. This is one storm that we never saw coming. On Thursday, I was settling in from working all day when the doorbell rang.Two state troopers. The dogs began to bark so J went outside to speak to them. He came back inside with both of them following close behind. "What's wrong?" I whispered, afraid to speak any louder. I had only seen on movies what happens when state troopers are at your front door. "Dad was killed," was J's reply. The bits and pieces slowly came together. Dad was driving on a curving two lane road and for possible unexplained medical reason, he veered into ongoing traffic and hit a fully loaded logging truck. There were blessings in it but we wouldn't see it until later. He was riding with his partner in crime...his buddy, his dog Max. Max survived as did the ...