Final Moments

I can hear the seconds ticking away in the shallows of my thoughts.

Less than 12 hours

I know that tonight actual sleeping will be laughable. I said goodbye to the newlyweds who plied us with wedding lasagna and left over carrot cake. My small little nephew petted me as I kissed him goodbye and waved through the glass as the car pulled away. There were tears in my brothers eyes, and mine as well.

Its been an emotion few days.

Just last night we toasted his marriage and enjoyed ourselves through a history-making wedding and reception. It seems unreal that in such short order I'll be leaving all that behind me. In the early morning we'll be on a plane, and there is a sort of placid finality about this realization: that all of our efforts and aggravations over the past few months will be made obsolete in the wake of jet fuel and too many goodbyes. There will be nothing more we can do to prepare ourselves. No matter of worry measures anymore, as there remains only what we do, and what we do not.

The last point of contact is tomorrow evening in Miami, via Philadelphia, before we make the long night stretch of flight into Lima. And from then, there but for the grace of god, go we.