facile

I am heart broken to realize how long it has been since I have updated this and with free travel beginning tomorrow I figure that now is the time. (please forgive typos and the lack of contractions since I am on an Italian computer and I cannot find the dart apostrophe key).

I cannot rightly update on everything in the limited amount of time I have to do this but I will say that I am unsure about the upcoming free travel time. I do not really know the people I am going with very well. They do not seem like bad people mind you just not people I know well, but I am sure that is bound to change.

We have just returned from our trip to Rome which was an interesting one. So many sights in such a short time, but I loved it. The highlight of my trip was today (the last day) when a group of us Loftis, Bump, Rumbo, Jacob, Riley, Beck and me climbed the dome of St. Peters Basilica (*stupid* no apostrophy-having keyboard). 551 steps one way. The most intense stair climb I have ever done, and what is truly amazing is that I only stopped once! Less than a month ago I climbed Torre Grosse (literally "big tower") in San Gimignano and I stopped something like 4 times on the way up. I think my lung strength and physical shape are getting somewhat better (one roommate said my snoring is getting better). And the view at the top was simply amazing all of these enormous monuments were so small! It made the choice not to cut out 150 steps with an elevator so sweet.

On a similar note I have not done so much walking since our Florence walk, and I cannot believe how good I feel lately I cannot really explain it except to say that I am feeling better physically and it is overflowing into the other aspects of my life.

It all relates to something John Riley told me after that Florence walk when I mentioned the awful blister on my foot. He said, "You have got to let your blisters become calluses." I thought he sounded silly at the time, but that blister has become a callus and all of the things that were once so difficult for me to do physically, mentally, behaviorally, spiritually and really all over the place have become...easier. That is todays word by the way "facile" means "easy." Now I am by no means done, but I am now more excited for the journey of growth I have set before me.

A presto,
-matt