Sunday, July 7
My family has a tradition dating back a decade or two of watching The Sound of Music on the Friday night after Thanksgiving. We watch and eat leftovers and sing along at the top of our lungs. One year, my brother Dave (who, along with his wife Tami, are almost always the hosts of the event) suggested that maybe we tone things down a bit, especially for the song “Climb Every Mountain”, when my nieces and sister-in-law and I all exercise our right to use our vibrato to maximum power. Dave was a political science major in college, and has worked in government and politics, so you might have thought that he would have known better to advance such an outrageous policy proposal without getting the requisite votes ahead of time. But no. And thus he was roundly hooted down, outvoted, and we joined together to show him just how wrong-minded that suggestion was. He hasn’t made such a foolish and rookie move in the intervening years.
Change is afoot for this branch of my family. Dave is retiring, and he and Tami are selling their house and relocating. John and Natasha and boys (our great-nephews) are moving to Spain in a few days, so they’ll be gone. I’m no longer certain that we’ll have a Sound of Music sing-along this year. That makes me a little sad, and more than a little nostalgic. But it doesn’t stop me from hearing “My Favorite Things” in my head. Raindrops on roses. Whiskers on kittens. Singing “My Favorite Things” at full volume with my family.
My friend Andrew, after practicing Reiki on me a couple of days ago, tasked me with spending ten minutes each day, with eyes closed, visualizing some of my favorite things. Some of my favorite moments, like a good run where I felt smooth and graceful. He told me it might be hard to do ten minutes in a single session, so I should set a timer; if I couldn’t do ten minutes at once, break it down and string together a number of shorter sessions that would add up to a total of ten minutes in a day. I tried it that night. I set a timer, closed my eyes, and visualized running. Running like a gazelle: one of those magical runs where you truly get the runner’s high and feel like you can go on floating from step to step forever. Gliding. And I pictured my best - fastest - marathon: the Tucson Marathon of 2006, when I would hit my split button on my watch at every mile, giddy with the unexpected fact of how much faster I was running that day than I ever dreamed I could (or ever would again, at least for 26.2 miles), and how I felt that nothing could slow me down. And I pictured myself skiing in deep powder in one of the back bowls at Vail, and just floating on the snow, making beautiful arcing turns. And then skiing through a field of bumps, hitting the line just perfectly, with my knees pumping up and down, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
I opened my eyes and found that just one minute 54 seconds had elapsed.
This positive visualization might take some time.
Today’s favorite things start with yesterday: a visit from the Sam family. That’s what we call our former neighbors, Sam and his parents. Sam is a couple of days from turning eight years old, and he’s one of the best things in my/our life. We were lucky to have the Sam family for our neighbors for three years, and even luckier that we all stay in touch and we get to spend time with them all from time to time. We had some Vinho Verde on Mayberry (our front porch) late yesterday afternoon (well, Sam had Whole Foods Grapefruit Italian Soda), and Sam graced us with a hip hop dance, as well as a “family” photo. As the Sams drove away at the end of their visit, a newer neighbor pulled up next door. He looked at us and said, smiling (since how can you spend time around Sam and not smile), “Is that your grandson?” Little in this world could make me smile more.
Then we came inside and watched another of My Favorite Things: Stage One of this year’s Tour de France. It’s a sad thing, to approach le Tour without Paul Sherwin as one of the announcers,. (For my friends who aren’t cycling fans, “Paul and Phil” have been the cycling commentators for the Tour de France for as long as I can remember. Paul Sherwin died suddenly and oh-so-sadly at the age of 62 last December. It felt like losing a friend when I heard of his death, and so it was for cycling fans around the world.) But at least we still have Phil Liggett. And it is, still, after all, le Tour! Whatever else July brings, every year it brings us this virtual tour of that beautiful country, whether I watch from the couch, or whether I actually make it to France to experience it in person. I’ve done that three times now (2004, 2006, 2010), and damn straight I’m gonna go do that again one of these days, and in the not too distant future. Maybe not exactly this year (still hoping to get back on a stationary bike any day now, for heaven’s sake), but still. At some point.
My final novena to the god of favorite things for today is another Sunday morning spent at our favorite local coffee house where our good friend Rick was playing this morning. I'm hoping that this clip is short enough so as not to invoke copyright infringement, so you can get a sense of how magical this place is for us.
Okay, I lied. One more favorite thing in my life: this guy, who puts up with my moods and meltdowns and feelings of despair; who takes me to all my appointments (without the least complaint for what that does to his schedule) and participates in all aspects of my medical care; who has been there for me every step of the way (or, barring steps, crutch or couch time of the way) during this journey; who cooks my dinners, brings me fresh ice in the ice machine, makes sure we have chocolate for any and all emergencies, and generally gets me to smile. Couldn’t do it without him.
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