60 to 60: Tree Hug

It’s a good day when the phone rings and your doctor starts by saying, “Good news, Lori.”

I’d recently had several suspicious freckles on my skin removed and biopsied. Apparently, I’m very good at making dots and spots that cause concern, here in midlife. Last year, I had procedures to remove suspicious/cancerous cells in three places on my body. The worst (and best) scar on my left hand serves as a constant reminder to 1. Wear sunblock and 2. Live each day with gusto.

Doc told me none of these spots have ‘melanoma in situ’ as the others had. “Simple sun spots” was the best thing I heard in a long time. I'm in the clear for the next three months!

Jay and I are in Sante Fe, New Mexico for a long weekend. It’s a terrific little city to walk around and get lost in. Wandering around, we came upon this enormous double cottonwood near the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. O’Keeffe loved painting these glorious and mammoth trees. This beauty began as two separate trunks about 100 years ago that later grew together.

I hugged that tree and that tree hugged me back.

It’s a good day to be alive.

It’s a good day to take a deep breath.

It’s a good day to hug a tree.