Of Life and Death

I hope the dark trees and bright sunshine in shades of black and white in this picture I took can somehow express the many emotions one can feel at a loss this close. Is it a sad picture, is it not; is it spring, or or fall; is it hopeful, or hopeless; is the sun setting or rising? I'm listening to New York Minute by the Eagles. As Don Henley says, this is a song about appreciating what you have. I hope that I now do. And I strongly suggest you do as well. Hold the ones you love; hold them, and love them, because one day you wont have that chance anymore. This is a song about how "Everything can change in a New York Minute." And so it has. "One day they're here, the next they're gone." I wanted to thank everyone on behalf of My padme for their many kind words and expressions of sympathy. I'm doing all I can to support her in her time of need; dealing with my own emotions as well, knowing full well I'll be losing my own parents in the not too distant future. Life is a gift, not a promise. Life is a journey with no certain destination, but with a certain inevitability. Looking back at the family photos from so long ago up to the latest photos of padme's father, I'm struck as to how long a life can seem, and at the same time, how brief, reduced to photographs and memories and momentos found along the way. How much more I feel I should have appreciated him now that I no longer can; just my feelings here, not anyone elses. A man larger than life, for without him, there would be no padme, the love of my life. I am forever in his debt for that alone. The most amazing thing to me right now in this darkness is that life somehow continues; the most absurdly mundane needs tug at us; we must eat, care for children, console each other, and in padme's case, create an appropriate send off for this great man. We mourn, but we shall, some day, continue. Anakin