Days 12-14 - Oct. 12-14 Travel & Minneapolis, MN

I hope you all have had a chance to meet someone that you instantly resonate with. It’s such a delightful feeling! So far have met at least five, probably more people, on this trip that I experienced that with. It has made this trip so worth the effort.

My new Minneapolis, Minnesota, Friend Pat is one of those people. Just before I left on this trip, I learned about the organization called Her Travel Circle, which is all about women, providing safe shelter for traveling single women. I joined it immediately, and discovered Pat when I was calculating my itinerary.

Pat lives in an apartment style condo and a well established neighborhood of Minneapolis. Obviously, I couldn’t park in her driveway, so she walked around her neighborhood until she found a safe place I could park Er, texted me the address and then met me there to make sure I parked in the right place. This is just a microcosm of the graciousness she showed me during my two day stay in her sublime home.

A compassionate and inclusive communicator, Pat welcomed my innumerable stories and shared hers in a deep and introspective way. I felt like a kindergartner getting to share so many parts of my life and really feeling heard. Our lives followed very different paths, but our life lessons seemed very similar. This feeling of acceptance makes me miss my good friends back home. Who also treat me that way. I am very blessed by this abundant kindness!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

You may recall that in the past few years, Minneapolis has been where many very difficult social events have happened – – world changing events. George Floyd, Renee Good, Alex Pretti. These were people whose lives were stolen by unkind people, but, because we saw it happen, the whole world met in huge numbers to protest the systems that would allow that unkindness. Their deaths literally changed the world!

Pat drove me to see these places where these events happened. Each one of them has memorials, displaying the outpouring of grief and desire for change. One of my favorite signs said “we are underreacting”.

Minneapolis, author, Louise Erdrich, rights provocative, indigenous oriented books. I have read and enjoyed a number of them and listen to one on my trip. So I was pleased when Pat took me to her bookstore called Birchbark Bookstore and Native Arts

I hope you take the opportunity to read some of her books as she is an extraordinary author. She does the narration of her audiobooks, if you want to get a real sense of the native languages and spirit.

I’ll tell you more about Pat on my “People I’ve Met” page which I hope to get too soon. And the following is an exclusive invitation to those who read this: there will be a button on the homepage that will lead to a special philosophical discussion page. I’m going to call it, “I have a theory about that!“ or IHATAT. Password "mary". So look for it soon. As my friends will tell you, I have all sorts of wild theories. So I’m going to put them out there, but you have to know to look for them. I welcome any discussion about them as long as it’s respectful.

The morning of the 14th, Pat graciously led me to the freeway to start an eight hour trek to Milwaukee, WI, to visit my cousin, Marion, whom I haven’t seen in 22 years. I’m sure that Pat will not be a little-while friend, but rather a to-the-end friend!