Walking the Amazon

  After the sun dipped into the Pacific like the ember of a cigarette and exploded in a thousand colors, and the evening clouds turned silvery ash until night swallowed the remains, Marie and I found a moment to collapse. Silence and stillness for however long it would last were embraced fully. All three kids were asleep finally. A survey of the damage began after one of us rallied to the fridge for a couple cold ones.
  One bathtub almost full of puke soaked clothing, bedding, and towels.
  Two infected ears for Tristan to go along with all the other stuff he's been going through
  Three boys taken down by the flu
  Four straight days of dealing with what nature likes to drag us through sometimes
  I was already dreading the next morning since yesterday because I knew Marie would have to go back to work and be the bread winner and I would be trying to manage this natural disaster and maybe try to figure out the bread maker in the process. Brutal. Yet as I sipped on the days reward I felt good, calm, I had reached the point where I knew I could deal. How so?
  After Marie got back from the doc with Tristan's antibiotic, mommy called the ear infection, he immediately fell asleep on me in the glider chair and remained crashed out for two straight hours. My butt and arms were numb, I however was hardly aware as I had been caught in the spell of a documentary called "Walking the Amazon".
  A British guy named Paul Stafford made the entire coast to coast, four thousand plus mile journey of the Amazon river on foot. He began in 2008 and completed the expedition over two years later. Along the way he suffered through enormous struggles against nature from jungle rot, parasites, flesh-eating disease, daily dehydration and starvation. He passed through the Peru drug corridor where most of the worlds coke is produced risking a bullet to the head with every step. After his trek up and down the Andes set him behind schedule he arrived at the Amazon basin at the height of flooding season and slogged through waist high swamp teeming with way too much stuff that could kill you, for my taste! By the time he made it to the Atlantic with one of the guides who joined him along the way he had passed through natures toughest tests. I was beyond inspired, no I won't be doing anything that insane sometime ever, but it gave me that moment of perspective I needed to stay in the ballgame and not let my mind drag me into that area that can drag the day out forever.
  So this blog kind of works out to be a congrats to Mr. Stafford for dreaming and doing the crazy and wild and a thank you for helping me walk my Amazon!