With A Legend

I think we leave everyone we meet a little better, or a little worse: our encounters with one another are never empty and heaven forbid we underestimate our influence.  We have the power to boost weary spirits and instill hope.  In the same way, we can wallop someone's best effort and ruin their day.  While some of us are the spiciest of riojas, and others no more than a generic boxed wine of unrealized potential, Michelle is the most playful of champagnes, bubbling and sparkling all over the place.
  

I knew last year on the camino that Michelle was a special lady.  Even in the gnarliest of weather she walked on without complaint, propelled by a combination of self determination and optimism unlike any I've seen.  She was generous with her time and herself as so many of us scrambled for a moment in her orbit.  Together the rest of us shared a collective camino suspicion that I can now confirm to be true: Michelle is in fact a real, live legend.

Michelle is the kind of woman I want to be.  She’s strong and brave and loves a good adventure.  She laughs easily and often, and seems to have a handle on what it means to live with integrity, gratefully and full on.  She’s so fearless in the face of barking kangaroos that she actually barks back.  I, however, run for my life.  She patiently taught me the art of driving left, and gifted me with the depth of her heart as we talked about everything under the cool Australian sun as we zipped along the Great Ocean Road.  She succeeded in expanding my palate to include grilled cheese with vegemite, while I failed in my reciprocal attempt to awaken her inner American with peanut butter and jelly pancakes.  I suppose nobody's perfect.

So many times on this trip and in this life, I am awed by goodness.  Whether by the trees or the critters living among them, by the squeaks of new babies or the way a coconut tastes when I’m dying of thirst, there are a million little things that astound me in their perfect simplicity.  More than ever before, I count friendship and connection among the greatest of gifts, one of the things that most sustains me.  My time with Michelle blew wind into my solo sails, and reminded me how much better life is when we it’s shared.  Or, more precisely in this case, when it’s shared with a legend.