Gifts From Friends

Tomorrow, when we rendezvous with five other couples we met on our first Road Scholar trip to Alaska in 2015, it will be the fifth year in a row we've vacationed with these folks. And though four others from our original group of sixteen cannot join us for the week we'll be spending on Florida's Amelia Island, three new people - friends of my new friends - are joining our fold this year.

For weeks, my energy has been surging as the time I'll be spending with these later-in-life soulmates has approached. Then an opening lyric and a melody came to me simultaneously ("It began in Alaska in 2015; a discussion, perhaps, of some places we've seen?" ) From there, I was further energized by the creative challenge of completing a song recounting some of our shared history.

At nine stanzas long, Ballad for Scholars on the Road far exceeds the average length of a reflection from this bell curve. Anyway, most of it would probably be of little interest to anyone aside from the sixteen folks (+ the new three) mentioned therein. No matter; I hope some new people in your life have given you at least one of the gifts these people have given to me - inspiration, energy, joy.