I regretfully tell you all that I must leave. I've taken absences before, but this is different. For one, I've promised several dedis and that I'd return to your galleries to comment again. I've finished only a few dedis, and I've barely begun to comment. In the past, I was always late after an absence: But I always returned. This time, I can't. It's just not going to be possible now, and for that I am truly sorry. I have several half-finished images, with words, but I can't finish them. I have lots of thoughts on your uploads---I've seen every one, sat with every one---but this time I couldn't write them out. Someone very close to me is ill, and it is taking up a lot of my energies. I am back to full-time work too. And there are legal matters pressing from all sides (partly as a result of the illness), and in the last week I had a sobering medical report, from issues which go back many years but which, in my 60s, have re-emerged. I can no longer do anything but tend to the matters before me. I want to say, I adore commenting on your art. I adore making dedis. These aren't obligations for me, they're joys. For those who say "life must come first," I want to say, art is a part of life, and one of its great joys. I don't put aside art because life comes first: I put it aside because part of life has come first; and unfortunately another part I adore has to come to a standstill. For how long, I don't know. But as I've made promises, I wanted to come here and tell you why I've not fulfilled most of them. I say that with great regret. With equal humility, I know a number of you have lived with illness some time. Some of you live with great pain. Some of you live with ill loved-ones...so it goes. I don't consider myself worse off, I can only be honest about my limitations: I have come to a point where I can't do anymore, and this place, which I love, has to be put aside. I will be looking, though. I hope, from time to time, I'll leave comments. But until I return, I wish all of you light and strength, and above all wonder and inspiration---what brought us here in the first place. For commenting here so many times in the last months, when I didn't comment on so many of you, I remain truly grateful: You don't know what that's meant to me. I hope to turn that around one day. And I take your kindness with me always. Great light to you all, and thank you for all you've given me and all you give here each day, period. I'll be watching. Much light and love to all,