I took this photo of Rose several years ago, and many people have asked to buy it. It was a foggy summer morning at Bedlam Farm, high up on the hill of the outer pasture. I sent Rose up to get the sheep and she vanished into the mist, and then suddenly, the sheep came running, Rose right behind.

I don’t really like to sell it but it came up again this week in a very different way. A friend of mine has a brain tumor and has been seeing specialists trying to treat the illness. I don’t know the details, but I sense he is at a crossroads and is thinking of returning home, far away from the East Coast where he is now. I haven’t spoken with him since he was diagnosed and I don’t know, really, how he is thinking or doing. I get messages and updates from the family, which I appreciate,  and he has great support and a powerful spiritual ethos. He is also a great animal lover, especially of dogs.

I was somewhat at a loss how to help him, as he was very engaged in treatment and didn’t ask to speak with me. He has plenty on his plate and he may not be able to do much communicating, I don’t know. Ours is an odd friendship, he doesn’t have a computer, doesn’t use devices to communicate, he travels quite often. But when we see each other, there is a powerful connection, a soul connection I think, he is a loving and creative spirit.  I think of him every day since his illness began.  I began sending him photos each day, those of the animals, my windowsill photos, Red herding sheep. I got a message from his wife thanking me for the photos, she said they look at them each day, they were astonishing, they said, a complete and very happy surprise. They asked if they could print seven or eight to hang on the wall of the room where they sit and meditate together every day.

They wanted to look at them every day. That nearly brought me to tears, that I am lucky enough to be able to take photos like that. They have the photos now.

How wonderful that my photos would bring comfort and inspiration at such a time. There are so many ways to communicate with people. You don’t have to speak on the phone, or e-mail or text or send messages via Facebook. Am image from the heart, a touch of color and light sometimes send the most powerful and healing messages in the world. I think some of these images are healing, they have helped to heal me and others. I can’t say I understand how it works, except that images of light and color reach across time and space, cut through human disconnection and mechanical clutter, sail like an arrow right into the center of the soul. There, they can do great work, perform miracles sometimes.

And then there is Rose, who is gone, but not ever gone. One reason I do not grieve for Rose is that I do not believe she is gone for good. She just keeps on working for me – and perhaps others – again and again. I don’t know if I will ever see or talk to my friend again, but I am grateful to be talking to him in this way. It’s the oldest kind of communication on earth, I think, perhaps far superior to our texting and compulsive messaging. Good wishes to you my friend and healing thoughts. I will sleep better thinking of you looking at my photos every day.  And thanks to  you, again Rose, running in your golden fields, you are the proudest of the spirit dogs and the most faithful and loving thing. I always said of you that you always got it done. Get it done again, girl.