Alone.

In the morning quiet. Only me and my sweet girl pup. Not a word to be said.

She and me - invisible.

She stops. I stop. We watch and wait and listen. The spring snow - I'm thinking - is the most beautiful of all the snow I've seen.

Thick. Gentle. Warm and white. Silent.

I hear the peck-pecking of a woodpecker...the familiar trill of the red-winged blackbird.

In the in between - I hear the sweet melody of the robin's song.

Slowly - a symphony is forming.

I think about the seasons. The freeze and the thaw. The never-ending cycles.

How one ending is another beginning and that same beginning is another's end.

Life goes on.

It always has. It always does. It always will.

One year ago - spring arrived as a promise. This year - I'm not so sure what to believe. Perhaps - there is no such thing.

Only hopes. Only dreams. Only possibilities.

Time doesn't heal. It - perhaps - lessens the intensity. But with time - the void and loss and emptiness becomes more real.

I sit.

I wait for signs of spring's re-birth and renewal. I remember another day...another time. I remember one year ago.

I watch - as the birds fly free.

If only for a moment - filling the space of the empty.