After we put Izzy down, we stopped at our new home to see Rocky and bring him a snack and brush him a bit. The house feels like home to us. I’ve always seen Rocky as a teacher. He appears wise and seasoned to me, but as importantly, his very life and presence is a series of lessons for me. To value time. To appreciate life. To accept it, and not to wallow in the dark things it sometimes brings. Like Rocky we will all experience loss and figure out how to respond to it. Sometimes I talk to Rocky, and I close my eyes and imagine his answers.

What do you do, I said, when you are hurt, confused, grieving?

Look forward to things, he said. Try it. If it takes more than a few seconds, you’re good.

So I did today. My short list, there in the pasture.

I look forward to my life with Maria. Every minute of it.

I look forward to the final editor for my e-book “Rose’s Call.”

I look forward to the clouds lifting and photographing chickens.

I look forward to time with the donkeys, with Lenore and Frieda, studying the chickens. To outfoxing the fox.

I look forward to taking photos with George Forss. I look forward to taking photos anywhere.

I look forward to editing my Frieda book, “Me and Frieda: Second Chances.” I look forward to the publication of two more books this year, “Lenore Finds A Friend,” and “Dancing Dogs,” both in September.

I look forward to going to New York City May 6 to see Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Death Of A Salesman,” one of my favorite pieces of writing in any medium. On that trip, I look forward to seeing my daughter’s new apartment in Brooklyn, meeting with my agent and editors,   going to the Park Slope Gallery to pick up one of George Forss’s photographic masterpieces and hanging it on my study wall.

I look forward to giving a talk on creativity and photography at the Mother’s Day Art Show in Greenwich, and then again, at the last Bedlam Farm Pig Barn Gallery Art Show here on the farm, June 23-24, Details of both on Maria’s site. I look forward to seeing some of you at one of those places or another.

I look forward to getting sheep. And I think I am closing in on a new dog, a border collie who can help with the sheep.

I look forward to moving to the New Bedlam Farm, as soon as we can. And then, I told Rocky, I was running out of room.

See, he said, you are getting it.