I found out last night after my class that a dear childhood friend of mine had died suddenly of a heart attack on Wednesday.

His name is Eric, and I’ve known him since I was 6 years old.  I won’t lie–it hit me hard.  He’s only a few days older than I am, and that of course is hard to think about.  But harder still is that I lost someone who was a constant in my youth, someone who was always positive, kind, and encouraging.  We hadn’t seen each other in over a year, but every time that we did see each other, we picked right back up where we left off.  He was an important part of my childhood friendship circle, and I will miss him dearly.

I shed many tears last night and today.

As I often do, I processed my feelings through my camera.  It was a busy day, starting off with working half a day, then driving to Asheville to pick up my daughter, making it back in time to swing by Sawtooth, going to the gallery hop (I have 4 photos in a new gallery show at Delurk), grabbing some dinner, and then heading home.

My sadness over Eric’s death stayed with me, as it will for some time.  I am okay with grief, though.  To me it serves as a reminder of love.

The photos I took today carried me through lots of emotions…