An apparition

This magnificent woman appeared to both Leif and me as we were walking along the street at lunch time. I snapped "from the heart" without even raising the camera to my face, and Leif pointed her camera and the woman disappeared. No, really. She disappeared. We both looked at each other and asked, "Did you see that?" We did. And we both saw her disappear. There was no door, no alley-way open to receive her. She didn't ride off on the bicycle. She didn't go into the room with blue chairs. We went back and searched the street. She disappeared.

It is New Orleans: smell of spicy shrimp boil, crab shells, mold, bourbon, garlic, and horse shit. New Orleans: balconies bursting with ferns and twined with wrought iron, windows hung with beads, pigeons on cupolas. Floor-to-ceiling windows, layers of brick and plaster, peeling paint. Roads closed for repairs, old buildings being renovated, men in hard hats, transvestites waiting tables, women dressed like gypsies telling fortunes in the square. Buskers, brass bands, powdered sugar and chicory-flavored coffee. In the afternoon we rode the free ferry to Gretna, and as I leaned over the edge, gazing into the Mississippi, I remembered throwing my wedding ring off the edge of the ferry in 1969.

I love this city. I was alive again today in every cell, young again where I was young once. I was wild again, although my feet blistered from walking and I no longer eat or drink as I did then. I was happy this day. Leif and I agree: friendships are better for us than lovers. We know how to do friendships. How anybody does lovers is beyond us. But this old friendship, this being witness to each other's lives, this we can do. We talked about how Sameness can suck you in, how it pulls you down, deadens you, so you fall asleep. Maybe this is why our lives have been so full of change. Maybe there are a few good changes left for us. This day was one change after another. And an apparition.

I've added another 34 pictures to the Flickr collection. If you've already seen yesterday's batch, you might as well just go to the photostream, where you can quickly page through the thumbnails without having to load a slideshow and all of that. There is one there for Spartan, who posts angels in the clouds; and for Chaiselongue with her balconies; and one in Black and White in Color, an idea pioneered here by Arachne.

Thank you for the comments and hearts. I've read everything you've said, but I can't stop and respond now, as I'm busy making new cells in my brain and new space in my heart for so much joy. Who would have thought there could be so much joy in a place? There is. I see that. I have two more days to be here, then a full day of travel back to Oregon, and then I hope to catch up and say thank you individually for the good company.