Inextricably Woven

We wandered to a favourite place in the late afternoon sun with a fierce wind wrapped tightly about us, memories of distant howls echoing each step.

Some things, the truly precious things, have the power to bind us, to hold us, to shape us, to become part of us. The most precious of all is love.

I love this place. I don't know when I first knew that, I do know it wasn't always so. The love of this particular land crept upon me slowly, took hold whilst I wasn't looking and now simply is. This is a place to pause and ponder, a place to stop for a while and be, somewhere to truly know your own place in the grandest of schemes. 
And as that slow inextricable love blossomed it did so in the shadow of a brighter burning love, for this was, is, and will ever be, the most favourite place of Pushka, glorious and wild. A husky is never really an ideal pet - but from the first moment she sank those little puppy fangs into our hearts, we knew that we'd made a friend for life - a kindred wild spirit, an adventurous companion, independent but fiercely loving. I was always kinda amazed she stayed.... 

Today after a long day in a classroom I emerged into glory and knew that it was time to set her finally free. I've not been back here since Pushka's light went out, but today all of Team IttH walked up onto the karst one last time and at a high point we let the wind weave our wild friend forever into the land she so loved. There's a rightness to some endings.