Bella and Sluggo

Eyes. We’re all so adept at reading them…even dogs readily transmit their true selves with just a glance or a glower. Of the four ways we humans communicate with each other (verbal sounds that are words, verbal sounds that aren’t words, body language, and eyes), dogs don’t get to use words, but they communicate extremely well with their eyes….

Hawk and Bella at their new home in Seattle– May 6, 2006

When your son asks you for advice on whether he should take the offered opportunity that would spirit him away from home and family to forge his own path in the world, I hope you can muster up the strength to send him on his way…. As Gabran says, you are the bow, but they are the arrow. The chain of life that passes through you to them is not, after all, yours to own….. I’ll dearly miss seeing him daily. The compensation, of course, is the inner certainty that I’ve done my job well…. He’s a fully developed human being with all of the capabilties he needs to shine. He is, quite simply, one of the best that humanity has to offer. Every man should have such a fine son. His website, btw, is HawkinSeattle.com

Three Miles West of Eden, TX May 2, 2006

On May 2 my eldest son Hawk and I packed up his Toyota Tacoma pickup truck , a large uhaul trailer crammed full of his earthly possessions, his dog Bella and my pug Sluggo and headed off to his new home and job in Seattle. I’ll fly back to Austin without him; certainly a new reality will ensue.. On sunset of the first day of the journey we caught this We really were 3 miles west of Eden…