The Perfect Kind of Right (and no, she wasn’t just a dog!)
We drove up the mountain toward my partner’s family cabin in Virginia and tears welled up in my eyes. I anticipated a week of hiking, cool mornings on the deck, and breathtaking Autumn sunsets without our Maya Ray.
Our week long vacation of colorful Fall kisses and off-trail hikes would be different this time.
This week, we’d be spreading some of Maya’s ashes at two locations around the mountain where my partner’s been going since 1974.
In my head, I abandoned the words spoken by others such as, “she was just a dog,” or “isn’t your sadness a bit much?”
I don’t walk this earth wasting my thoughts judging the depths of other people’s hearts and why they do for me or anyone else simply isn’t worth the energy to explore.
Loss is personal. No matter the loss, the feelings experienced by the sufferer are not on display to be judged or measured. It may be the human experience to make judgments based on how we feel about something; however, grief is wrapped around the feelings of the griever. Setting personal expectations on anyone else’s grief may isolate the griever and potentially create a barrier in your relationship.
Some things in life just feel right and I’m thankful to have the self awareness to accept and receive when it’s right for me.
Maya, being the fourth member of our family, was reminiscent of fate. Her name, Maya Ray, was brought to life by tender memories of one of our favorite local restaurants where sweet thoughts run deep and the first name of my partner’s father who died when she was nine. Before she stepped foot (paw) in our home, she was cultivated of lasting admiration that was meant for growth and epic love.
Maya Ray was perfect to us and carved a permanent spot into our hearts embraced with special love, loss, and what might have been.
Maya wasn’t just a dog. She was a wistful memory of a father taken during a child’s impressionable age. She was the hope and loyalty bonded by new love. She was the seal on two humans and a Sheltie sister, Zoe, who excitedly expanded their family to four.
She was pure love. Pure love never ever fades, stops to rest, or loses consciousness.
She’s part of the earth on that mountain now. May the hesitant adventurer in her silently observe the deer at sunrise as they pass by and may she drink in every blazing orange sunset as the clouds dance over the mountains.
Our hearts aren’t the same with her gone but our lives are forever impacted and imprinted with the love she gave us.
Some things just feel right. Maya was the perfect kind of right.
