I asked my daughter to pull over, and I took the call. I shook some, but didn’t want to abort our trip. Couldn’t it wait? Was there really a rush? We had five days to take in what we had scheduled for fourteen.
Marveling at the high mountains, the blue skies, the golden vistas and the green trees, I wanted to retain each second, and sear it into my memory. This trip might be my last. My daughter and I, we talked. We also listened to a book on tape, all 33 chapters as we drove mile after mile of landscaped scenery we thought we’d never see again.
I don’t remember much of the conversations I had this summer, but I do know the love. The meaning was the presence, not the words.
At one point, we hiked up to the top of a mountain in Glacier Park and the vista expanded my heart to bursting. Tears welled up in my eyes. The tears I didn’t dare show my daughter when I received the phone call of an unplanned destiny. I stood at the top, looking over the valley and silently sobbed while taking in the beauty of it all…the all of life.
On my return, I’ve had consultations, surgery and now treatments. But in between, I’ve also made sure that my promise to spend time with people I love is kept every day. And, I keep walking in nature because being alive in all this beauty is what I love the most.
With a Perspective, I’m Yvonne Baginski.
Yvonne Baginski is a Napa-based writer and environmental activist.
