Stuck in traffic with the Dalai Lama

Arrived in Bend Oregon after a gorgeous drive through wild desert (where I kept scanning for wild horses, no luck!) from Boise at 3 p.m. only to find that Rita, my hostess, had just left for the emergency room with her husband in great pain. How fragile life is, how the "best-made plans" . . . ! (P.S., he's okay, the situation was not life-threatening, though had to be attended to immediately).

That evening's event, at the home of two women who have long opened their home to gatherings-of-heart, held a dozen women in a circle, most of them connected to each other through their work in the local hospital. Half young and the others of crone age, like me. Really a special time, the young ones blushing to have to speak at all and yet eagerly absorbing the stories of their elders. One of them said to me afterwards that after our discussion she no longer feels afraid of death.

Yesterday, driving north through old forests with sudden spectular views of Mount Hood, got stuck in an hour-long traffic jam while nearing Seattle and felt serene and grateful to be listening to an audio book describing a man's experience with the Dalai Lama over three decades.

Walked around Green Lake with my dear sister Mary and her husband to get the kinks out after near 8-hour drive, deep into discussion of global warming, peak oil, need for community . . . Then a wonderful dinner and full-hearted talk on their patio until dark joined by their friend Carol, whom they met at the Chartres Cathedral in Paris and who also seeks to serve.

Today, take the ferry to Vashon Island, for this evening's event at a bookstore there, hosted by my dearest sister-of-heart in the whole world, Claudia. So very grateful to be alive and mostly conscious and awake during this momentous, scary, exciting crossroads time of human transformation.