Bragging Rights

Can I brag about a friend for a minute? I'm incredibly privileged to know so many interesting, inspirational and motivated people but someone who stands a cut above the rest is, undoubtedly, my 4'10" yoga and stretch instructor Miss Nola. My ever-youthful single friend (who's far older than she looks) has conquered more soaring peaks in the world than any other female climber I know. Her expeditions include hiking up mountains over 15,000 feet in places like Peru, Russia, Nepal, Tibet, Antartica, Greenland, New Zealand, Africa and Afghanistan. She's one of the few or perhaps only women to ice-pick her way up all 46 high peaks in the Adirondacks in the dead of winter. She has survived camping outside in -30 degree temperatures as well as reoccuring bouts of breast cancer. Her proportions are tiny but her attitude and will-power and courage are taller than Mount Kilimanjaro, which, by the way, she's also tackled. Yesterday, she and I spent the day skiing the Berkshires, small molehills for a woman with her experience and skill. Miss Nola truly is my inspiration in her depth of character, sense of self and ability to take on challenges of insurmountable proportions. If there's anyone deserving of a biography, Miss Nola is it.