correspondence - melissa gravesen

Subject: the next crazy 'ventures beneath the skies...
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:45:04 -0700

Gary, thank you for your greetings. I look forward to browse around your different blogspots and sites .

I decided not to check my email for a month - my month of "solitude" - but then I brought my cellphone, and I admit I sent more text messages then I had planned on. Well anyway, three more days to go. I'm in a hostel in Madrid (no sleep at all now), so I finally caved in for that internet. I hope that all is well and that you have adjusted somewhat of being back/off/on the track(?).

The fever began that dark morning when I last saw you in Triacastela. I was able to make those kilometers to Sarria, though - with those sad raindrops in mind - I realized that I had better to stay in bed for 48 hours with shattering teeth.

I made it to Santiago on Wednesday, the day that I heard that you left. Wandering - with those boots off - someone calls from the corner of the street, the part with sunshine, Hans!

So with the feeling that something had ended, and my Achilles tendons being too sore for another step at the moment, I took the bus to Finisterre. Ah the sea!

"Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands,
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves,
Let me forget about today until tomorrow."

Two days of rest, and I was ready for the road again. Then I reached a point where the Camino had to end for me. But I guess that if I've learned something, it's that the road never ends.. (not to speak of that wandering!)

I guess all you can do is keep on striving for that "built-in happiness", as Dylan writes in his Chronicles (describing his wife):

"The one thing about her that I always loved was that she was never one of those people who thinks that someone else is the answer to their happiness. Me or anybody else. She's always had her own built-in happiness."

Give Susan my regards.
Best wishes,
Melissa

Subject: under those feet?
Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:58:24 -0700

Gary, nice to hear from you, a smile this tired morning!
just a quick line (for the moment), before continuing those last breaths of
Madrid's art, to tell you that you are welcome to add these lines..

Saturday I will be back in the north, hopefully beneath a diamond sky and on
to some sleep.

"sometimes you could be looking for heaven in the wrong places. sometimes it
could be under your feet. or in your bed."

Hoping for winking stars in Colorado and agreeing on no tiny specks receeding!

melissa

p.s.
wiggle, wiggle, wiggle in your boots and shoes,
wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, you got nothing to lose