Now that you are here

Some of you may and some of you may not have heard of an experiment at Stanford University studying four-year-olds and their ability not to eat a marshmallow placed before them with the promise that if they could wait they would be rewarded with two marshmallows when the researcher returned to the room.


http://www.sybervision.com/Discipline/marshmallow.htm

A follow-up of the four-year-olds when they were adults revealed that those who could resist the impulse to eat the first marshmallow in hopes of receiving a second marshmallow were the most successful adults--in careers, families, happiness, etc.

This study, when I was reminded of it by a friend,  became the inspiration for the title and focus of my blog.  I have been waiting a long time for my second marshmallow.

 Now that it's here I plan to take both sweet,  puffy treats and skewer them, roast them over a fire until lightly toasted and pop them with their crunchy shells and melted, sugary centers into my mouth and savour all the deliciousness that I have anticipated for decades. Thus begins the metaphor for the next part of my life.

Friday Jo and I will depart for England to begin a 190-mile coast to coast trek. We signed up for this journey led by the Sierra Club last fall and I have spent the last nine months getting my marshmallow butt in shape.  Now the much anticipated day is nearly here and as I pack and repack clothes, boots, hiking poles and sundries; as I once again check that my passport is indeed close by and that the battery chargers for my camera, computer, cell phone, Kindle (it's England not Timbuktu) are in a zip lock and that the proper plug adapters are in another zip lock; as I check again the itinerary and try to remember names such as St. Bees and Ennerdale Bridge and Sunbiggin Tarn, I will savour the anticipation, the sweetness to come and the knowledge that a dream deferred doesn't have to melt, burn and dissolve during the fire trial of a life well-lived.

Take my hand (to paraphrase Walt Whitman) and walk with me.

P.S. I'll try to post daily but may not have internet access. Enjoy!