It's life

M came home late on December 10th, after being gone since July. Two days later, he was in the hospital. It wasn't the homecoming either of us had anticipated. The good news is that he is okay, and today, he finally got to come home from the hospital. A big, heartfelt thank you goes out to all of you who called, emailed and prayed for him this past week. It means so much to both of us. We will make every effort to to follow up with each of you individually, but I thought this blog might be the quickest way to deliver the good news to all of you.

The Christmas cards might end up being New Year's Cards, and a few Christmas packages might be a little late, but those things don't seem so important to me right now. Not because I don't think of you who are far away, but simply because I know you will all understand that my priorities were elsewhere.

In other, desert-related news: our backyard has been the happening spot in the early morning hours, before the sun comes up. One morning, we had a bobcat, stalking a cottontail. It is the first bobcat I have seen in several years, and it was thrilling. A few days later, two coyotes had killed a jackrabbit. I managed only a few shots before a certain fuzzy dog noticed my interest and frightened them all away by running out his dog door, barking. A friend of mine asked me if it was hard for me to see the coyotes kill one of my beloved jackrabbits. I didn't really know how to reply. I've had a few days to think about it now, and this is what I have decided: I understand the relationship between life and death. All living things die, and when one creature dies so that another may live, there is a sense of rightness to that. What I really have trouble with is suffering.

You can just make out the jackrabbit in the coyote's mouth.