The Man on the Wall.

January 24, 2017.

Today, on a warm, bright afternoon Zuma and I were out for a long walk and we casually met a man sitting on a wall, an adobe wall, warmed by the Santa Fe sun.  The man was resting and enjoying the winter warmth at the base of a very large hill; he was interested in meeting Zuma and she wanted to meet him.  Good energy.  The man told me he lived in a house on the hill that houses the huge white cross that overlooks the city.  

Seriously, I don't know how these things happen.  People talk to me.  I am blessed.  Somehow, in between Zuma's outgoingness and my reclusiveness, we have struck a balance of energies and this lovely man and I began a conversation that will stay with me for the rest of my days.  

His name is K (I won't reveal his real name, for privacy reasons) and he is a year older than I am.  He appears physically healthy and vibrant, a true southwest soul, even though he was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer and is undergoing treatment (chemotherapy).  Over the course of our visit, he told me he is not afraid of dying or death. Nor am I.  We shared that.  It's not often you can smile and share these things with a total stranger.  But he wasn't strange and he wasn't a stranger.  

Zuma subtly placed her ginormous head on K's lap and stood there throughout our visit.  She knows.  She is the barometer for good karma.  She lets me know if "it's okay".  K gently told me about his life, his love for Santa Fe and the southwest, his home. He loves animals and he lives frugally on the sacred mountain where the huge cross presides.  He is a man filled with sweet, soothing, calm energy.  He is at peace with himself and the world.  Through watery pale blue eyes, his gentle demeanor kept us talking for about an hour as we shared some moments of our life stories.  Neither trying to outdo the other, just sharing soft tales, looking ahead to whatever life brings us.  

We will never meet again, at least, not on this earth, but it was a peaceful, special hour.  One sixty minute segment, 3,600 seconds in the serene film reel of this journey through life that I will always remember and treasure.