SPRING BREAK Journal: Saturday, March 25

I enjoyed a lovely lunch with a good friend yesterday, in a beautiful cafe overlooking the river. She had just returned from two weeks in France and England, and so we had a great time catching up on the news. She looked healthy and happy, as though the trip had been a blessing for her. I had been a bit concerned, because the trip was school-related, and she had accompanied 19 ninth-graders – but, from what she told me, they all had nothing but fun. It was good to be there in that dining room with big, bright windows looking out on the river. Spring had arrived last week, and there was a feel of it in the scenes we saw through the window. Even the river seemed to be flowing with a little more force and enthusiasm than usual. I enjoyed an enormous hamburger for lunch, and my friend had a beautiful-looking salad. I also sipped a glass of white wine, which turned the afternoon even mellower than it already was. We ate slowly, talked quietly, smiled brightly, and laughed a lot.