starting over

I had dinner with a couple I've known for over 20 years tonight. We had a wonderful meal. I've helped them with their dogs several times over the years so they gave me a little stuffed puppy to carry in the truck during my travels. I've had a little manatee on my dashboard for years and thought maybe it was time to leave the manatee in Florida and start over with a new "truck pet". Coming home from Tampa I would go past the wooden cross I had put on a fence post years ago...the spot where my sons car went off the road. For years I put silk flowers there four or five times a year. I decided a few years ago that it was time to let it go. Tonight the manatee is nestled in the grass under the cross, at home in Florida where it belongs. I will take my memories, all the good, some of the bad and try to finally leave the grief and the guilt behind, with the manatee, under the cross, in the grass on the side of the road. I've been give a chance to really start over, how foolish it would be to pack up regret and take it along.