Showing up

I wonder if the wind just wants to

sit still sometimes 

and watch the world pass by 

If smoke was born knowing how to rise 

If rainbows get shy back stage 

not sure if their colors match right

—Naima Penniman

I promised I'd stop hiding out. And so, when my dear friends Elizabeth and Michael from our Life Magazine days called last week to say they were going to be in town from Austin, Texas  and could we get together, I said yes. Elizabeth and I were reporters together, and her husband, Michael, was a photographer, and he and I were often paired on assignments. When I walked into the diner where we met for breakfast this morning, I had a flashback, seeing Michael sitting there, as if we were in some town in the middle of the country on assignment. Next to him was Elizabeth, one-third of our wild trio of reporters, who got up to all kinds of mischief back in the day.

It really felt as if no time had passed. We could have sat all day catching up, but they're in town for a memorial service this afternoon so we had to watch the time. I'm so glad they never gave up on me. Elizabeth has come to town and called me at least five times to try get together, and now we finally have, and of course, all the fear of judgment ("She got so fat") is unfounded, the years fall away, and it is only your friend you see.

We took a selfie to mark the occasion. What I particularly love about it is that you can see Michael's calculating eye as he sets up the picture. Here's a photo he took of me when we were on an assignment in Fort Wayne, Indiana when I was 26. We were in the airport coffee shop waiting for our flight back to New York. The sun came up and slipped through the blinds and Michael reached for his camera. Good times.