tried to post this yesterday (saturday, april 28th) but there were wi-fi "issues"
so, another day, another coffee shop, another post to follow post-haste
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35. Let's say you have 2 days left on the planet. (Due to death, ascension, e.t. bus, other.) What would you do? From where you are--things you could realistically do locally. Don't spend a lot of time on this, and think with your heart rather than your head.
My friend Mary came up with that question a few days ago and made a list. Three of the items on the list we did today: go to a really high place, skinny dip in a mountain stream, drink dagoba xocolatl (spicy hot chocolate) made with rice milk and coconut milk with whipped cream squirted on top.
Okay, so the skinny dipping was QUICK, it being around 50-55 degrees and mostly overcast and a little drizzly at times, although the sun did come out to see us when we said, "Look, we ain't skinny dipping unless it warms up a little."
It was a magical day. Perfect privacy for the skinny dipping, probably because of the weather. We finished getting dressed and I'd just crossed the stream to get back to the trail when a guy came down to the stream--which had the lovely name of Flat Laurel Creek.
Oh, and a thousand years ago (spring/summer of 1984) I worked at IBM for 3 months. Night shift, 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. putting chips on cards. One night, when it was a simple job you could do in your sleep, I memorized an Edna St. Vincent Millay poem, "Afternoon on a Hill." It was so fabulously appropriate that I recited it to Mary and she promptly said, "Okay, but it needs a new ending." I changed it some, to make it appropriate to our magical mystery tour up to Sam's Knob. So, with gratitude and homage to Ms. Millay:
We were the gladdest things
under the sun.
We touched a hundred flowers,
did not pick one.
We looked at cliffs and clouds
with quiet eyes,
watched the wind bow down the grass,
and the grass rise.
And light began to spark
in every human soul,
lit every human heart,
and we were whole.
Make sure you read "Afternoon on a Hill" some time. Hope you come up with a good list.
