Coffee with Hannah

The Vero Cafe, Eugene, Oregon

I got a text from Hannah today.  Funny how much you can tell from a few short words, and the timing of those words, even when they are not spoken.  She seems okay, but maybe a little bit not okay..

I've known Hannah since she was a little girl.  Now in her mid-twenties, she is a creative, strong, smart young woman in the midst of becoming.  Over coffee, we talk about grieving for what was even as we embrace what's becoming.  

Even with tears in her eyes, Hannah is radiant with possibility and resolve. And she reminds me that I am like that too. We linger on the patio at the Vero cafe over a second coffee, savoring the chill air.  And then it's time for each of us to return to the everyday race of getting things done and figuring out how to pay.

But we are changed by the moment when each of us was a little dissolved in the other, a little less on our own island.    She will back next weekend.

View from Mt. Bailey,
Outside Eugene, Oregon

Today I realized it's been almost a year since my last post.  In those months, I've had a serious illness, lost my mom, and left my job.  It's a lot to absorb, and it seems like there have not been very many Pure Moments during the process.

But I know there have been.  There have been moments when I felt well, and connected to my friends and family, moments when music or the sound of wind in trees transported me out of my head and into the present.

As I write this, I remember that early this morning, about 3am, I woke to the sound of rain on the metal roof outside my bedroom.  After many months of hot, dry weather here in Oregon's Willamette Valley, this is important.  On hearing the sound, I feel excitement and relief.  I dress and walk down the stairs, outside, to let the rain fall on my face.  

For weeks, the air here has been thick with smoke from wildfires burning all over the state.  Ash has fallen from the sky constantly, coating everything with tiny white specks.  Now the air is washed clean.  As I look up into the rain, I feel washed clean too.  

I climb the stairs, climb back into bed and drift off to the sound of rain, with raindrops still on my face.