This morning Aki and I walked around the moraine with a mutual human friend. It was a dark morning but with no rain. Even the faint color of yellowing willow leaves seemed candle like. Aki played with the many dogs being walked on the trails as the two humans talked about the sadness we had know while living on the Kuskokwim River in Southwest Alaska. We welcomed this chance to air out and then jettison grief, comforted by each other and the gentle beauty of lake side forests going to rest.