there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do… - Mary Oliver

the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own

determined to do the only thing you could do — determined to save the only life you could save.

And it is exceedingly short, his galloping life. Dogs die so soon. I have my stories of that grief, no doubt many of you do also. It is almost a failure of will, a failure of love, to let them grow old — or so it feels. We would do anything to keep them with us, and to keep them young. The one gift we cannot give.

What kind of life is it always to plan

and do, to promise and finish, to wish

for the near and the safe? Yes, by the

heavens, if I wanted a boat I would want

a boat I couldn't steer.

There is nothing more pathetic than caution when headlong might save a life, even, possibly, your own.