And so the wheel turns.

Ann's gone home.

I've known Ann as long as I've known Tom (aka. Mr. Elder back in those days)... so that's 'bout five years. But in that short breath of time I've been luck enough to get to know the two of ya' pretty well. 'Must say Ann will sorely be missed. *"well duh'", but still needs' saying* I've fond memories of sitting in ya'all's house just visiting over coffee, with ya'all, as many animals come up to introduce themselves to me. And I've warm amber memories of the secrets of rocks unfolding before me as Ann explained some fossils one day. Even such a simple and mundane memory of emptying out the quarryshop, and moving stuff down to the converted housing unit were great. Or the memories of Ann shaking her head as she walked in to HQ, telling me sweetly and un-judgementally that the cig I was smoking was no good for my health. These are the things I'll always remember. From what beliefs I hold, I see this time as painful for us, yes. But so good for Ann. She has been freed from the wheel, and by the fire she shall become airborne and see it all, and all of us, and she knows our grief, I feel. But I feel that she'd want us to focus on the good times. the sepia-tone memories of summers, springs, falls, and winters past. A great soul like hers shall not stay adrift for long, and soon she'll return home, back into water and earth, to be devoured by fungi treeroot, healing ash, re-fertilizing the soil, the soul transposed is set free, and the remains remain, to continue their part in the cycle, earth, to grass, to forbe, to tree, to animal, to you and me. It's all a great circle, a wheel... the Tree of Life! Ann reached the peak of the branches, and now the branches become the root that feeds the tree, that grows the branches, that become the root....etc. *Shrug* But please don't take offense, this is just what I believe ~Quayle M. Chew