All My Favo(u)rite Things

Close of business on a dreary and cold (finally!) Friday...and all I can think about is "My Favorite Things" from the musical, Sound of Music, by Rogers & Hammerstein. Here's the reprise version, the reunion with the children:

The run up to my big "round number" birthday is all about my favorite things. It's going to be a lovely next 7-8 days filled with Snoopy & the Great Pumpkin, The Sound of Music, Bruce Springsteen (of course!), our cats, James, yummy favorite foods....

Stressy weeks require extra de-stressing too! Someone recently wrote: "Always affirm the outcome you want!" Positive affirmations are definitely much more helpful than worrying about a nasty surprise. You can reap what you sow, and even if you don't, the ride is much more pleasant if you stay positive. Enjoy it, why put up with pain if you don't have to?

A friend of mine in Basel had a baby yesterday. I went to the hospital today and she let me hold him, oh my God! Just a day old! Amazing little thing he is! So strong already, the kicks in the womb must of been helping him strengthen those legs. The father is so wonderful and I am so happy for both of them. They are so blessed.

Really, all I want is to be able to testify. To be a testament to those who want to listen. To say something about my life, my universe, my everything. To give thanks to the universe for this beautiful life and the privilege to work with Love.

I miss my mother, I miss my father, and I miss my brother. I miss my bunny and niece and nephew. I miss my sister-in-law. I miss my "scuzzy roommates". I miss my Italian-American and French-American "mothers". I miss redwire and 53Esquire, skyjocky, PrettyRedRose, misadventure, nikita, and sixtyninechevy. I miss the Big Man. I miss N, J, T, G and PPP, A, E, J, and the Australian mötley crew.

So, I simply remember my favorite things....

Dying and Living Gracefully

I just finished the book, "Seize the Day: How the Dying Teach Us to Live", by Marie de Hennezel, a French nurse working in a palliative care unit in Paris. 

It is eerie knowing the people she writes about are already dead, long gone: yet she writes with such compassion and clarity, that these people seem still alive and here. If I was to visit this hospital now, I am sure I would see the memory of these people on the faces of doctors and nurses and other psychiatric staff who still work there. It really isn't about the money: it is about human dignity and doing work that is meaningful and compassionate.

Classical psychology/psychiatry always has this "emotional distance". It keeps one objective and able to withdraw and cope with the sometimes horrible things patients say. What Mrs. de Hennezel is able to achieve with her brand of psychology, based on Jungian principles, is a much more compassionate and physical form of healing and accompaniment. She is wonderfully alive, and her book is a testament to that. Teaching someone to live is no small feat, but in the Western world that is her construct, we can afford to be a little more touchy-feely, she claims. It heals the living, the last rites.

They say, the dead have no religion. But the dying do, and we are all dying, just as soon as we are born. The other books I am reading are also on this similar thread of the true nature of the human and breaking through all the lies and constructs we've been given since we were a child. It's a good theme.

Not sure where to go from here, but that's alright. Reading and writing such "fluffy" stuff is becoming a larger part of my life again, while the "hard" sciences are becoming much smaller and I hope to diminish them completely in the years to come. 

It suits me right. I am not daydreaming anymore! From the Facebook page of: Never Give Up on Yourself: