Dot’s friend is having an end-of-year sleepover for the Senior class girls tonight. It’s the first night I’m alone since last week. Since the Big Before and After Moment.
We’re doing okay. There have been some difficult moments, and some good ones. We’re going to be okay. We’re not there yet. But we know we will be. And just knowing that makes it okay to be where we are right now.
I’m taking advantage of this solitude by watching “The Sound of Music”. For some reason, I’ve been singing the songs all day. Mostly, I think, because last night I asked prayer for “Something Good”. We just need something Good. Something stable. Something… a change. Anything.
And once I spoke those words out loud, I thought of “The Sound of Music”. Christopher Plummer singing “Edelweiss” has almost always been my favorite moment when I was younger. As I grew older, I began to appreciate him and Julie Andrews having their moment with “Something Good”.
So, if even just for three hours, I’m tuning out the world and the hurts it brings; and I’m singing. And listing A Few of My Favorite Things.
- Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals
- Christopher Plummer in a green-collared suit, singing
- Pastors available by instant email
- Enough FLASHPOINT episodes on the DVR for an entire day without stopping
- My rice steamer that makes cooking easy and thoughtless
- Chocolate Martini
- Family
- Friends who let us talk
- Friends who hug us when we don’t want to talk
- Tears that are able to fall
- Our cats (*Cats have more “human”-like emotions than any other animal; which is why they are so empathetic.)
- Megan, who let me hijack her birthday breakfast to talk about weird things like anything but what I needed to talk about
- Julie, April and Judy who are my Bible Study women
- Dot’s friends who are by extension, my almost-kids
- Nathan and his family, who are by extension, our family. I’m so very proud of him for his honors graduation. Way to go, Nate! (If I can call you “Nate”…)
- The new birds that keep showing up in our yard
- My church, my Pastors, the staff, the prayers
- My Mommy, who is still my MOMMY no matter how old I am
- My Dot, who lets me be her MOMMY no matter how old she is
- Yard lizards
- Music
- Writing
- Truth
- Knowing that Louie is no longer suffering, and knowing that someday our hurts will also end
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!