What about Machu Picchu?

This morning was like one of those chemotherapy wake ups; the first day after the toxicity had let go, when the body felt normal. I remained in the bed extra hours just enjoying feeling my body without pain or strange sensations. And Claudette close up to me, content to just be there. I didn't want to answer the bell. So I dallied.

Finally sipping the first cup of tea, checking the email rewarded my stirring. The first was from a friend I love as dearly as any but have never met. I have written about the gifts of the Internet and surely Betty is the greatest to have blessed me. Over ten years ago we were there supporting and learning from each other how to make beauty to share with all in this new medium and much more. She has succeeded far beyond me. Her writing and graphics are of incomparable elegance. A look at her guest book tells the story of friends around the world. Today's e-mail announced the end of her day job, a nine year period of caretaking for the second time a husband through final years. Depleted, she is planning the next chapter.

The second from a friend enjoying a glimpse of a future created through many years of efforts and self-deprivation. She once commented on having missed the chance to see Machu Picchu in exchange for these glimpses. My heart swells with empathy and admiration.

I think of and am grateful for those two and all the other friends in my age peer group, one who today is caretaking in a similar situation to Betty and two whose work just ended this month. I love and appreciate these old folks I am privileged to call friend. Each so unique, each all have lived diverse lives to this place. We like to believe we write the script and I am certain I am not alone in wondering if I could have written a more enjoyable or at least worthy lifestyle for myself. When our soul directs us to simply do the right thing the plot often excludes the exotic and the frenetic. But it also assures those, brief as they may be, glimpses of the legacy of answering the bell.

I never had the money to run with the Machu Picchu crowd but I like this one best.

A glimpse of Mach Picchu Link