Belated Goodbye Dear Friend

It seems everyday there's a lesson. It's really the same lesson, over and over. And it's one that we learn to tune out.

But then sometimes, you can't tune it out. It hits you smack in the kisser. I had one of those this weekend.

And the lesson is: we live on the knife's edge. We live in a very delicate balance. And we can easily tumble off into the great unknown at any time.

I lost a good friend, a great soul, and he disappeared without really much of a trace. And there was no chance to say goodbye. He drifted into my life, and then drifted out. Like a cloud, a shadow.

I will remember his smile and dry sense of humor. I will remember our good times together and our battles in the trenches. We had some strange Don Quixote-like connection, locked in battle with looming windmills. Fighting for hopeless cases and lost causes.

And then at a key moment he slipped away and I found out well after the fact. No resolution. Just a quiet exit. And then silence.