For months I was comatose. Everything stopped when his heart stopped.

I was too dysfunctional to go to class, yet I was functional enough to breathe.

I could sleep but I couldn’t eat.

I was living through molasses, the world around me spun too fast.

Words made no sense.

Music tasted like alcohol.

Everyday I was lost - standing at the corner of disheveled and awake.

Until one day I stopped.

I was no longer lost.

I was reminded of the healing power of nature and music, of photography and beautiful words, of laughter and history.  I was embraced and showered in this feeling of enlightenment when I realized that you had taught me everything I needed to know about the earth and the soil before you left me. 

And then it came to me slowly and overwhelmingly that you didn’t leave me. You never left.

You showed me that happiness was a simple walk in the woods.

You are still very much alive, in those deep blue summer skies.