Missed Swiss Miss

Marielle Bourban

I don't know if I shared with you how frightfully busy I was before I left Maui? I had 4 billion things to attend to, large and small, many of them being things that literally had to wait until the last minute. My time was in high demand. My West Side friends I was seeing a lot, in between working and all the gatherings that were planned in my honor, I got to soak up so much more time with them all , it was fantastic. My "other side" friends, though, I had to schedule into my schedule and it was tough. The two women I really wanted to have some one-on-one time with were Erika and Marielle. They are my two closest and favorite yoginis from Kihei (Erika) and Paia (Marielle), and we used to see each other more in yoga up in Haiku, but our lives have all changed slightly so that our time together has become a little less frequent. We used to all go to yoga, emerge, blinking and sore and a little spacy, then head down to Cafe des Amis in Paia, where we would overeat and overtalk and try to be heard over the loud music, and part ways with "I love you" every single time. Marielle is from Switzerland and lives there from January through July and here August through December. Nice, yes?

I managed to have a nice long breakfast with Erika and her husband, Scott, at the Plantation House the Sunday before I left. We had a few laughs, they had a few bloody marys and then Erika and I got to have some time, just the two of us, to connect. It was nice.

Marielle was more difficult to fit in, as she has a busier schedule and I was even shorter on time but we decided to meet at Longhi's in Wailea for breakfast before we each had some other appointments. To be honest, I had considered cancelling, but then stopped and thought about it and considered that making time like this is really what life and friendships are all about. She has been a really loyal and true friend and I just knew, deep down, that this would be time well spent, and that I would leave the island feeling better if I spent one last breakfast with her.The morning felt like the first "winter" morning on Maui. The air was slightly cooler and clearer and we both commented on the clarity. She showed up wearing all white, a long flowing skirt and a white halter top with her favorite glass ball earrings and that swirly shell ring she always wears. We ate and chatted, ate and chatted and lingered over our last minutes together, laughing about where or when we would cross paths again. Would it be yoga in Europe when I visit? Would it be hiking in the Alps? Skiing in France? No, it will be yoga in South America next fall, one of the few destinations she has not visited yet.

She loves taking goofy photos so when she walked me out to my car, we got some pictures where one person holds the camera and you point it back at yourself? I call them Chicken Neck photos because the person holding the camera always has to crane their neck in such a way that you get a waddle, all wrinkly and icky. So we take a few of those and of course one of us is unsatisfied with the way we look, but never in the same photo! so we take 4, 5, maybe 6 until we both agree that we look passable. Then we take one last one, brow to brow, eyes locked, tips of our noses touching, exchanging breath, spirit, mana, Hawaiian style. As I look back over my shoulder she is standing with tears in her eyes, white skirt swirling around her legs, so happy for me to leave and so sad to see me leave. She had never been more radiant than in that cool Maui air with the hint of autumn between us.

When I woke up this morning in Telluride the light coming through the curtains was familiar, yet odd. I was familiar with that glow but had forgotten that it meant snow! My first taste of winter here in the mountains, and it felt like Christmas. I needed to drive into town to use my cell phone and my laptop, so I woke up a bit headed in. Partway there my phone gets service so I pulled over to listen to my messages. One was from Marc, on Maui. Marielle's friend found her in her bed at home, dead. It all seems so very far away, so unreal. The peaks all around me are freshly snowed, white, clear. They are close and very very real.