I moved around you still

 I moved around you still.

Even after you were gone.

It wasn't something I decided to do.

My heart simply didn't get the message that you had left.

I'd wake up and carefully step over the place where your bed used to be.

I'd open the front door just a little slower, almost expecting you to squeeze past me with that excited look that always made me laugh.

I'd carry groceries into the kitchen and glance behind me...

Just to make sure I didn't accidentally bump into you.

Habit, they call it.

But it never felt like habit.

It felt like love refusing to believe that an empty space could truly be empty.

Your bowl stayed in the same corner for weeks.

Not because I forgot it was there...

But because moving it felt like moving you.

Your leash still hung beside the door.

Every time I walked past it, my fingers wanted to reach for it.

As if we still had one more evening walk waiting for us.

One more sunset.

One more chance to watch you stop every few steps just to sniff the world like it was full of tiny miracles.

Sometimes I'd hear the house settle in the middle of the night.

For one hopeful second...

I'd think it was you stretching after a nap.

Or turning around three times before lying back down.

Then the quiet would return.

And so would the ache.

But something has changed over time.

I still move around you...

Only differently now.

I no longer step around your bed because it's there.

I step gently because your love taught me that every place can become sacred.

I still pause by the doorway.

Not because I'm expecting you to appear...

But because that's where gratitude finds me.

I smile when I remember how every homecoming felt like the greatest event of your entire day.

I carry you into every act of kindness.

Into every lonely dog I stop to greet.

Into every gentle touch.

Into every patient moment.

You never really stopped walking beside me.

You simply stopped making footprints I could see.

I like to imagine you now...

Running across endless green meadows beneath a sky painted with soft gold and quiet rainbows.

Your legs are strong.

Your eyes are bright.

Your heart is light.

And every now and then...

You look back with that familiar expression that always said,

"Come on... I'm right here."

One day...

I won't have to imagine it anymore.

I'll hear your paws racing toward me.

I'll feel your joyful weight against my chest.

Until then...

I'll keep moving through this life the way you taught me.

With gentleness.

With loyalty.

With love.

Because even now...

I still move around you.

Not because I can't let go.

But because love has quietly become part of every step I take.