Jeanne and Lynn

Jeanne and Lynn, friends from Hartford, drove up to visit us yesterday. We met when I was co-teaching a yoga retreat in Brazil in 2002. A group of us spent a week in a mountain town in northeast Brazil called Lencois. The second week, Mark flew down for a week of vacation. The 4 of us spent it together on a car-free island called Moro de Sao Paulo. We hadn't planned to spend that week together but it worked out so beautifully. We have kept in touch and love to get together. They were game for a 2-hour snow shoe yesterday. Here are a few photos of that adventure. We spent a really wonderful day and evening together. We were talking about traveling together again, and Mark suggested Prague. Who knows? Maybe in May?!

I went back to the Unitarian Church today. It was a wonderful service. The music was provided by a cellist playing Bach. The regular reverend gave the service. She is there one-quarter time with other congregations elsewhere in Connecticut. Today she talked about Martin Luther King, Jr. She described him as a "reluctant prophet". She had just read a book about him which said that he did not set out to be a social revolutionary. Other than inspiring us, she also set forth a challenge: what is it that speaks to each of us? where do we feel ourselves called to help? She said that not a day goes by that each of us is aware of a situation that is unjust in some way. How do we respond? Not doing anything is a choice, but not the best choice.

It seems that I have inadvertently found myself in the right place at the right time. I will definitely be back.

This week I have the big scan on Wednesday. I have been feeling a little shaky these last few weeks. This happens every time. You'd think by now that I'd recognize the signs -- feeling more vulnerable, anxious, sad, a whole mix of feelings and thoughts. Yet every time, I am surprised at how ruffled I am. It's like I see it afterwards. In the moment I am confused and wondering why I'm feeling "off". I spoke to my friend Wendy this morning and she gave me a good word -- although we all live knowing that we can get sick and die any moment, that we are all vulnerable to something terrible happening, it is magnified when you have cancer. Metastatic cancer at that. Sometimes I feel like a walking time bomb. I always have to be prepared for bad news. It is such a sick to the stomach feeling, waiting for the doctor to walk in the room with the test results. I feel fine, great, even. And yet....

I go in on Wednesday. If all is clear, I will start to plan the 30-month party.