See ya September

Overview

The month of September was certainly filled with highs and lows for me. I completed the value of Knowledge as well as spending time with my brother in his element and meet many of his friends. I had an incredible time hiking, talking about life, and participating in a Murder Mystery created and ran by my brother. Things, however, changed quickly when I returned home. My animal companion, Koji, had a mass buildup that was pushing on his trachea making it difficult for him to breathe. It got progressively worse but I was able to spend a lot of time with him in his last week and I am extremely grateful for that. He passed away on the 25th of September. He was an amazing spirit whose main mission was to love and bring joy into the world. I took a little time off writing and working on my values as a result but am going to continue with him in my thoughts. The next value I will be completing is Unity which I believe is appropriate because I believe all beings are unified in a deep sense.

Koji

Koji came into my life while my family and I were at an event promoting fostering and adopting dogs. We actually first saw his sister, Annie, and were only going to adopt her. However, once I learned that they were brother and sister I pleaded to my parents to let me adopt him as well. It worked. That day, we took home two beautiful souls that brought endless amounts of love and happiness into the world.

Koji had so much energy and loved cuddling in your lap even when he maybe got a little too big for it. Annie and him got along great, she was definitely the alpha in the relationship and would start barking battles between their neighboring adversaries. She was also the leader in all their unsupervised strolls in the neighborhood. Annie would do anything for a couple of kisses and was always ready for some loving, Koji on the other hand was much calmer and sweeter when it came to him loving. He was usually pretty great around younger kids and was well loved by those who met him. I did not get to see him as much when I went off to college but seeing him after some time was always worth the wait. I am glad I got to spend more time with him over the past year.

The initial shock of his passing hurt quite a bit, but he had been having some health issues for a while so this certainly was not out of the blue. I think the worse part is each dagger of sadness that comes when I forget he is gone and have to remember all over again. Dropping a piece of food on the ground and thinking to call his name, opening the door and expecting to see him wagging his tail, and hearing a dog bark and thinking it is him. I love you, Koji.

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Best Meals

I had another month of delicious meals and my two favorites were a recurrent meal, avocado spinach salad and salmon, and a harissa chicken bowl. I am slowly getting better at cooking my own salmon and finding the right ration of seasoning, currently I am mixing together: salt, garlic powder, cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, and a little brown sugar. The salad is fantastic as well, it has the best food in the world, the avocado, so you know it is gonna be great. The other meal was so very flavorful. It was a symphony of powerful tastes all fighting for recognition and in the end coming together to highlight each other. Some of the shining flavors were the feta cheese, the dill, and the harissa seasoning.

Highlights

• Spending time with my brother after about a year apart was amazing. I especially enjoyed hiking with him. We did a night hike up to a point overlooking the valley he lived in. We just sat up there talking and enjoying each other’s company, yet it was by far my favorite part of my trip.
• Receiving the finished artwork that my cousin made for me was absolutely a high point of the month. She updated the logo and banner she had made around two years ago. I was beyond happy with the outcome, she is becoming an incredible artist and I cannot wait to she where she goes from here.

Phatasic Photos

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Upcoming in October

I do not have anything special planned for the month of October. The plan is to just continue to work towards moving to the land in January, continue with my values, and improving myself just a little bit each day. I look forward to the many adventures October will bring.

Make Today Your Best Day Yet!

“Life is a series of fresh starts, the frequency of use is up to the individual”

~Zak Keller aka amusingmonk~