So on my way to Scotland, I stop and visit a Scot in London.  Emma and I were roomies while on the Camino in 2017 and despite my sublime distaste for social media we have managed to stay friends on What’s App.  Yes Emma, it’s true you are my only friend on What’s App   A lovely dinner in London with Em and her new beau. Em inspires my bad behavior (and it’s not just because I am an acerbic ugly American abroad) – two bottles of wine before her beau made it to dinner so you can imagine the fun.

i was talking to Emma about Thrive and how that started my on this journey.   I like calling it the hero’s journey like Anne Lamott describes…..where you leave the familiar world behind, learn to navigate the call to adventure and return home after the most miraculous of circumstances.   By the way, Anne Lamont hysterical and spot on.

It’s funny right as much as every trip is a genuine adventure in talking to Emma I realize that developing such a rich coterie of friends is in and of itself part of the journey  …… yes we all know that.   Yeah, I get it the internet makes it easy to do but keeping friends when work is all in for all of us and life steals minutes and hours with everything else you have to do I still think it is Truly and I mean Truly amazing that you can develop such strong and lasting friendships in small moments when you for a brief moment are completely focused on someone so far away.  Juma and I have been friends for 30 years, all in small trips, year over year, in brief moments  filled with inane belly laughing.

Em you were right ….more sentimental.

Every single persons brings something to you and you to them…. I think of my travel buds through the years ….Bibi Juma (pure joy and possibility) Keith & Chris ( limitless boundaries) Allan & Diane (Fearlessness) , Em (bold and sentimental), Lori (wisdom and truth) and all the new ones at CF and I think of one of my favorite quotes from Tecumseh ……

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart…… Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of others.

Onto to the next adventure…..Scotland – the Highland Way!