..I left our Washington, DC apartment at 8am and driving "Ruby" I arrived in Saratoga Springs, NY at 5:30pm.
About 460 miles from here to there and about 80 miles shy of tomorrow's final destination at Blue Mountain Lake in the Adirondack Mountains, where Bob, Barbara, Margaret and myself will kayak out onto the lake and ceremoniously let fly Patti's ashes to the wind, as was her request.
But right now I am sitting at the Amtrac station waiting for Margaret's train to arrive at 7pm.
Yes.. she took the train from DC instead of driving with me. She says she felt the great urge to take the train and besides that she says she doesn't do well in sitting in a car all day. I am in agreement that when "the angels tap you on the shoulder" to do or not do something then it's best to listen up and consider the feeling.
I found the drive to be easy and enjoyable and according to Margaret, her train trip was enjoyable as well but also relevant in that she made friends with and was able to help another person to not take a wrong train.
That's how it works sometimes.
So very many things, people, events are connected in time way beyond our small sense of the "right now". We "catch up" to one another, some more personally important than others, and we "connect", if only for a moment and then move on our own way in time.
As we all know in looking back over our lives, the smallest of innocent choices can have the greatest ramifications down that road of time. More often then not we just don't know which of our small decisions, our smallish connections eventually turn out to be the ones that have profound influence in our lives or in the lives of others.
As Ram Dass has written: "We are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter, because we are so deeply interconnected with one another. ... and being Love is the supreme creative act."
I personally believe that Life pays back its debts to Itself, be they consciously creative or consciously destructive. (Oh we all secretly know the difference on which thoughts to act upon and which ones to unstick ourselves from.)
You are racking up some Good Karma, Margaret.. I suspect that the gods favor those of we mere mortals who help others and do it with no expectations of any kind of reward (save perhaps the required "thank you"). Caring matters.
The next day we drove on into the center of the Adirondack Park and to Blue Mountain Lake where we were to meet Bob & Barbara. The 4 of us would be kayaking over to Eagle Lake adjacent to Blue Mountain Lake and there doing the sad honors of spreading Patti's ashes, fulfilling her wish.
It was a little rainy on this last 80 mile lap and I fretted a bit about having foul weather the whole time we were scheduled to be here. (my concerns were thankfully unfounded in that the weather was good for our 3 days there.)
We all arrived in the afternoon. The chilliness of the air was a welcome reprieve from the oppressive heat and humidity of the city life that we had left behind. We remarked on this a number of times. Chilly!
Good thing we all brought our warm jackets...and spirits in the bottle to keep both body and soul aglow.
The four of us had a wonderful dinner in the lodge that evening.
Then breakfast in the morning. Meals included in the cost and they fed us too well!
Won't you join us for breakfast? (The waiter volunteered to take our picture after he took our orders.) Click the audio bar for a 2 minute podcast.
"Letting Go Lightly"
