I spent the day yesterday sitting with my friend, Natalie, who is dying of cancer.  (See Notably Natalie post, 10 January 2013.)  I keep thinking about how this world just keeps going on and on, even when someone is trying to get off.  I drove home yesterday evening wanting to shout at everyone on the freeway to STOP!  Something big is happening.  Natalie is getting ready to leave us!

Today I stopped at a quilt shop in Salt Lake after a meeting there.  Here I am planning trips to Africa and buying fabric for quilts to make some day.  It makes me feel a bit uneasy to be acting as if my life will go on forever, knowing there are no guarantees.  Here I was driving home,  looking out at the gorgeous mountains that surround us in these beautiful mountain valleys.  Leaves are just beginning to turn.  The sky is bright blue with gatherings of white puffy clouds after last night’s thunderstorm.  Utah Lake is off in the distance, glittering in the sun.  And I drove, surrounded by strangers who are probably not seeing these things as if for the last time, my fabric in a bag on the seat beside me.

Update: Natalie Reed passed away peacefully at 6:32 p.m. on Friday, 6 September 2013.