In a sigh

Last week I was away for a bit, in Wellington. That place is gorgeous! The sparkling sea, the hills and mountain ranges, and surely the freshest air of any of the world's capital cities.

It was a time full of emotion, because I visited a formerly vibrant, clever, attractive friend who, in her mid 40s, is slowly ebbing away. She's fairly ebbed on the outside already, and the words of hers that I could understand were few, but on the inside she's still all there.

Wellington's south coast (a bit further along from where we
walked). Painting by Don Wilson, used here with his kind
permission. His website's here.

One evening I pushed her in her wheelchair along Wellington's south coast. What a wild place! But it was a mild, almost windless summer evening as we traveled together along the footpath that skirts the coast. I know she loved it, because it came out with one great, big, happy sigh. So much feeling can be put into a sigh! There we were, old friends, strolling along in a place of great natural beauty - the kind of place we both feel our best.