My friend Kathy

We have limited access to the outside world here. In order to send or recieve emails or texts, we have to walk to a bench about 20 yards away by the Bea cabin, under glacial tipped peaks. Sitting on that bench, we get rumblings like distant glacial movements, far away in Oakland or across the globe. A friend breaks up with her boyfriend, another is reunited with a past love, another shatters her wrist.

Yesterday at 5:00, I got word that a dear friend had passed away a few minutes before. Kathy had a huge impact on my life over 40 years ago. She challenged me to live out my faith in hard and tangible ways when many of my friends treated Christianity like a country club. Kathy walked with me through the end of a very toxic relationship which put my life in a whole different direction. We didn't see each other very much for a few decades, but I visited her frequently in Sacramento the last 7 months as her health declined. On our last visit, she was confused and rambling, but as I said goodbye and left the room, she called out after me with great clarity and a radiant smile, "I AM going to Brazil next week!"

I hope you're loving Brazil right now, Kathy.