Hi friends (and hello if you’re new). It’s been a week of loss for us.

One minute we were opening birthday presents and just about to try Mexican Tres Leches birthday cake, the next we were scooping up a healthy pup—suddenly dangerously ill—and racing, racing to the vet hospital.

I don’t know how you do things, but when we love, we go all in. In a house of boys and men, this pup was my little girl.

And here’s the problem with grief.

But life?

Life is an adventure.

And I know this: adventures are filled with plans and friends and hope and danger. Obstacles, losses, mountainsides, and cliffs that are simply impossible to pass. Yes, there are campfires and joys—yes—and love and rest and ease, but an adventure means there is ALL of it.

One of my favourite poems by Mary Oliver, American poet, is about her dog, Percy—but it’s really about how to live. If you haven’t seen it before, it’s worth reading.

We need to learn the lessons of life.

The big ones seem to be this: how to love. How to hope. How to appreciate and enjoy.

But what can we do when sadness and loss bowl us over, and leave us changed?

We can keep going…with love.

We can keep going with Love.

I hope you have a weekend filled with comfort and joy.

Love, Catherine x

PS. A couple of things to share…

• This Auden poem: Funeral Blues.

• The Tres Leches cake. (Yes, it was brilliant, when days later we tried it…)