Buffy Lynn

My darling daughter, Tracey, is arriving in about 10 days. She'll be in St. Louis for a couple of weeks before she leaves for her adventurous trip to the other side of the globe. She is a photo journalist, and photographic artist, and wants to go make pictures in Thailand and Tibet for 4 or 5 months. That's all well and good except she doesn't know a soul there, and doesn't even have a contact person and insists on traveling completely by herself. scares her mother to death.
It's not like she's completely new to this idea. She took off, after college, to move to Brooklyn N.Y. and was there that fateful day in 2001 for the 9/11 tragedy. I had no idea where she was, but she was fine, of course, and tried to race toward the center of the city after the planes crashed. She got as far as the police would allow, her camera in hand, and recorded her experience in some amazing photos. Brooklyn is a fantastic city, but very,very, expensive, even when you are holding down 3 or 4 jobs. She then set her sights on San Francisco by the bay....
She has lived in the heart of San Francisco for the past 4 years, with stints as the photo editor of the Yoga Journal, and setting up photo shoots for RED ENVELOPE for the past 10 months.(very stressful, from what I hear)
While there, she decided to train for a half-marathon, but then changed her mind, and ran the full marathon last fall. Her time was well under 4 hours, too. She recently hiked with friends, up Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states, which was a 3 day ordeal, because you need to go slowly so your body can get used to the altitude.....
Sometimes her dad and i wonder where she got all this courage to try all these things, and to achieve them as well. I guess I do remember now and again saying, when you want to do something just go for it... I never knew she was listening, I guess.
To my darling girl, be safe, be careful, we love you so and want you to come back to us safe and sound.... you are something else !