And we are off!

I am particularly grateful and amazed at life, and the family and friends which it bring to us if we are open to them. Yesterday, the Monroe Family celebrated a family wedding in Maryland. My niece, Hannah, is the fourth of five cousins on the Monroe side to be married. A wedding presents an opportunity for the confluence of lives, experiences, differences, hopes, challenges, and dreams.

Yesterday, John and I had breakfast with Sarah, my best friend of 51 years. To be able to celebrate that friendship year after year is beyond wonderful. It is sacred.

At the reception yesterday I was talking to my brother, father of the bride, about the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. He reminded me that the ancient people around the world celebrated the sacred reality of the confluence of great rivers. Those sites are considered sacred sites. I haven’t done the research into that but I suspect it is because the rivers are the conduit to connect us to other “tribes” and to resources that our tribes and future depend upon. The rivers are life.

And so Karen and I celebrate 25 years of friendship this year as we paddle the muddy waters, churned by decades of barges and paddled by centuries of Native people. It is sacred. Somewhere along the way our goal of acquired “getting there” (wherever there may be) turned in a sacred journey in which we celebrate the moment, every person we meet, every piece of ground on which we camp, every barge that creeps up on us peculiarly quiet until it is right next to us, every heron, every eagle, everything. Though we are not as enamored of the rain and wind, even those provoke gratitude.

Today I fly to Cincinnati where Karen will pick me up with our red canoe, Wonder, atop her car. From there we will drive to Uniontown, KY, and meet our new friend, Bryan, who will assist us in travel arrangements this year. And the last full week on the river begins. Sacred and full of life.