Watching you enjoy yourself at a time of great internal discomfort makes me cry with joy.

Today marks 25 days until my wife’s surgery as we are on vacation.  One of my wife’s biggest fear is heights.  Actually my wife usually won’t admit that she has many fears, but she procrastinates over many things before making me plead desperately for her to make an effort.  Today we are on vacation and I wanted to take the family on a gondola ride up to the top of Heavenly Valley in Lake Tahoe.  In the past she would have complained about the price or found something less strenuous to do.

Instead she encouraged our young daughter that we were going to see something wonderful and that there was nothing to be scared about.  My wife made every attempt to look comfortable as our gondola climbed to over 9300 feet in elevation.  Once we reached the top we went for a 2 mile hike to the top of the site of the Olympic downhill. As I looked around, I saw her overlooking Lake Tahoe with her eyes closed and taking a deep breath as the sun shined on her face making her look glowing.  She looked so peaceful as she sucked in a huge breath of the fresh thin Sierra Nevada air.  She caught me glancing and posed for a photo with the majestic escenery behind her. A powerful and evrlasting image for me.

Why so powerful?  It made me feel good to know that she was ready to take on her fears, to live life and to enjoy the day and make us all feel a bit better.  I know she had sensed our tensions flying over the past week and I think she is just letting us know that she is going to lead us through it all herself.  We had a long day full of the beach, golf, hot tub and my own birthday, but the best part was watching her on the scary gondola ride and the difficult hike.