We got in my friend’s car yesterday to drive to Minneapolis. There were only a few flakes of snow, and some wind, but we each carried a little concern. She set the GPS for our location. Synced her route to her husband’s phone in Minneapolis so he could follow us along the journey. We had a full tank of gas. We both had fully charging cell phones and people to call, in case… A car full of emergency clothes – most were my mother’s.  We had coffee from Starbuck’s. We had everything needed. 

As tears and laughter crossed paths, we talked about how we used to get places. No maps. No GPS. No phones. No back-up plan, or any real plan at all. Even in the blinding snow, armed with nothing really but the thought, “Well, I think we can make it…”  And somehow we did. 

I asked cousins and friends who have recently lost parents, “How do you do it?” No one knew. No one knows. I suppose we have to return to that inner faith, confidence, hope, excitement we carried, on the journey, during the journey, armed with nothing but the will to move from place to place. To set out. To go. To live.

I, we, awaken to this new day. There’s a song that plays in my heart, “This heart was born feet running…” And mine is telling me to begin the journey, navigating with only the carried belief, “I think we can make it.”