I had the brightest ending to a week that began darkly. I drove to Bennington, Vt. to food shop, pick up Fromm Dog food from Celeste O’Dowd O-Malley – she is as Irish as Red – and I was so glad to get in the car with Red, leave Maria to her magic and get on the road with my camera. The end to this week was the complete opposite of the beginning, the story of life. I stopped at Stannard’s Farm Stand and they said they were about to come to the house and check on me, it had been days since I had stopped in for their fresh strawberries and blackberries, was I okay?

I told them about the Lyme Disease, and then they peppered me with questions about, as some had aches and fevers. At the Round House cafe, Scott asked Maria how I was doing, and she said I claimed to be dying, but was running my mouth and being obnoxious so she knew I was okay. I talked to Celeste about construction delays for her new home near Brattleboro. We were completely out of food – Maria is like a guy in the sense she would be happy to eat bread and cheese for a week or two until neither was around and she was starving. Artists.

Mile by mile, those strange and disturbing days melted away, faded, became remote. It could have been so much worse, there are so many things so much worse than my Lyme Disease.  Life rushed by me every mile.

Beautiful things began to happen to me today. I was busy all day. I met a barn swallow mom.  Simon brayed at me. Flo jumped in my lap. A friend asked me to photograph their grand-children’s naming ceremony next week. We are going to have our anniversary day Monday at our favorite inn. Red started lying down on command and had fun doing it. I saw a beautiful tree on a beautiful road. I saw curious dairy cows next to a dying old barn. I came home to my wonderful wife and a porch full of life. I am making a pizza with roasted asparagus, cauliflower heads and ricotta cheese. Life happens every day, good and bad, and the measure of a good and full life is how I respond to both. Any chump can deal with good things, but only the lucky learn to accept both.  We never quite get the life we want, we get our life and that’s a good life for me.

I wondered if Billy Graham or Thomas Merton said that, and then I was delighted to remember it was me.

Isn’t this the message, the point?