I was on a plane headed from Nashville, through Detroit, onto to Seattle.

From there I was on to Beijing, then on to Tibet and Mt.Everest.

I was meeting a mountain climbing team in Seattle that would attempt to be

the first Americans to climb Everest from the Tibet side. I was the writer

on the team.

Anyway, I was so jazzed by this, my first trip out of North America, and

on to my dream-land of Tibet that I didn't really notice the people around

me on the plane, which is unusual for me. Meeting and understanding people

is `what I do'. I had on head phones and I was jamming to tapes by The

Allmann Brothers, Hendrix, David Sanborn, etc.. I had my eyes closed and

was rocking back and forth in my seat, my attempt, I guess, to calm down.

I opened my eyes, for some reason, and there standing in front of me was

this tall, elegant, beautiful, blond woman with high cheek bones. She sort

of floated by, she was dressed in this flowing light pink dress. She was

fresh-faced..her eyes seemed to look through me.. She sat down in the seat

behind me.

That's nice, someone almost angelic was sitting behind me...but the

excitement of my China/Everest adventure came back to dominate my

conscious thoughts.

I opened my eyes sometime later and there she was again, passing by me in

the aisle.

Right then I decided I must talk with her. Soon the flight would be over,

we would be to Seattle and changing planes. Surely, she wasn't going to

China.

I bent around, a very contorted thing to do in the straight-jacket-like

airplane aisle seat I was in, and said hello to her.

She was so engaging. We talked, we laughed, we kept talking until the

tires screeched as we landed in Seattle. As we walked off the plane I

remember thinking, I should go with her. Her name was Rita Jorgensen, she

grew up on the family farm, in the Midwest. She'd graduated from Michigan

State, was running the family grain elevator and was in Seattle to see her

college friend, Debbie.

I had asked her for her address, not something I do normally, and sent her

a couple postcards from deep in the mountain passes of Tibet.

We started talking on the phone when I returned. It was several months

before we saw each other again, since we lived over six hundred miles

apart. That initial look, that zap to my soul and heart has deepened over

the years. We have been married now for thirteen years. The ever-flowing

love and grace that comes out of her towards me has made me a much better

person. I' m not sure what I've done for her but most of the time she

seems to enjoy and appreciate it.

The powerful pull of that instant attraction between us has led to

long-term love. It is a love I had heard was possible, but doubted it was

so. Now, I know it is.