April 7, 2020

The first light.  First light on the silent shore.

Just the ships that anchor, me and you.

The way home.

This is always the way home.

So you can rip that map to shreds, my dear.

I was talking with a good friend about her dog recently.  Dogs are great.  They just love you.  They don’t care about your hardships, your success or your failure, your good day or bad day.  They just care about you.  They love you for you.   When you come home for break, the tail wags and they run to the door to greet you.  When you go for a walk with them without a care in the world.  When you cuddle up on the couch and they snuggle up next to you, they love you because they love you.  Aspire to have the attitude of a dog.

Every day this gets harder and harder.  Every day when I walk in my back door it’s harder and harder to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  When I look at my empty dining room at noon, it gets harder and harder.  I’m running out of places to put this sadness.  I miss you.  I miss you every single day, from the moment I wake up to the moment I don’t fall asleep.  I drive around and see shop after shop, restaurant after restaurant closed.  I’m one of very few left open and I know if I close my doors, it’s 50/50 I will be able to open them back up.  What about my friends who have already closed their doors?  What are their odds of reopening.  

Dinner is almost always a local restaurant, and Saturday it was a tough one.  I was talking to the owner about how they are doing.  He’s down 90%.  90% isn’t okay.  90% will put anyone out of business.  Being down 10% in the restaurant industry can put you out of business if you're not careful.  I look around at all the closed doors downtown and I am so afraid for my friends.  Please come back friends.