These last few days before the bone marrow transplant are feeling rather strange, so I find myself processing, in ways both nurturing and slightly less so.
Realizing it was my last chance for at least a month, I took a chance on a local salon and enjoyed a wonderful pedicure. I especially enjoyed having my feet encased in plastic bags filled with some sort of heated and scented oil. A wonderfully nurturing treat.
Slightly less nurturing is the way I find myself reverting to “treating” myself with less-than-optimal food choices. But I refuse to make a big deal about it because I know it’s just a temporary coping mechanism.
Sometimes I remember a song from childhood really, really well, except for maybe a word or two.
It can be frustrating because, growing up as I did before the internet or anything digital, it’s not always easy to find information about old books and/or songs online.
Which brings me to this particular song which has been going round in my brain for several days. The lyrics go something like this:
Many million years ago, when dinosaurs were, All the mattresses that people had the floors were.
Many million years ago, hey donnie day down, Children never went to bed they simply lay down.
I absolutely loved this song as a child. For one thing, it has a lovely melody (sorry I can’t easily demonstrate it for you), but I also appreciated the tongue in cheek quirkiness of it.
However, I’m not entirely sure about the “hey donnie day down” part, so a while back I started trying to find it online to see if I had it right or not. The problem is that I remembered the Maurice Sendak illustrations and searched for a “Where the Wild Things Are” songbook, obviously with no success.
Something brought it to my mind again the other day, so I did some more searching and — lo and behold — I found it! It was a songbook of lullabies and night songs, illustrated by Sendak, but with music by Alec Wilder.
Now I can’t wait for it to arrive, so I can play it again on the piano while singing along — knowing I have the correct lyrics!
This was the message I received on my Momentum Dash the other day. Not surprisingly, it made me think about, not just the current challenges I’m facing, but how best to approach living in general and life itself.
I believe it’s basic human nature to want to deny and reject experiences that we find painful, difficult, or uncomfortable; I’ve done it myself time and time again throughout my lifetime. But it’s contractive, which is not a good strategy for actually rising above those experiences.
In order to accept and wholeheartedly embrace what in front of us — no matter how painful or difficult or uncomfortable — we have to raise our energy, draw on inner strength, listen to intuition, and be open and receptive to all kinds of help.
And that’s expansive, which is our best, most excellent strategy for creating a life experience filled with love, joy, peace, and abundance.
I’m very grateful that we haven’t had a lot of appointments or errands to run these past few days. When temperatures are in the triple digits it’s a good time to stay home!
But today I had an appointment at 4:50pm — literally the hottest time of the day, with the temperature topping out at 113 degrees!
Mamma mia!
We just have to get through a few more days and then temperatures will drop back into the 90’s, which will practically feel cool.
I’m getting so much enjoyment out of these neighborhood discoveries that I have to share a few more. But hopefully this phase won’t last too long. 😂
I’d love to know the story behind this totem pole. The sign says: “Once upon a time…And they lived happily ever after.” A little village — including a nativity — is placed around the base of this tree, presided over by a gnome. On the other side is a sign that says: “There’s no place like gnome.”Elegant dining in one’s front yard
I’m getting back into a walking routine — building momentum before next week’s bone marrow transplant — and really enjoying the variety of charming sights in the neighborhood.
From little fairytale houses to unfamiliar trees to canine rest stops, it’s all quite delightful.
After our spontaneous performance in the apheresis unit
Our new singing motto seems to be: “Anywhere and anytime” — including the apheresis unit of UC Davis Cancer Center!
When you’re sitting around for five hours hooked up to a blood separating machine, there’s lots and lots of time for chatting with the nurses who are watching over the process. By the end of two days they knew that we were musicians and that we direct the music ministry at our church.
As we were preparing to go, we thanked them all for being so kind and upbeat, while they assured us that we had been the perfect patients — all in all, it was quite the mutual appreciation society.
So, when — in the midst of all the thanks and laughter — they asked us to sing something before leaving, we didn’t hesitate. Of course I wasn’t in full voice, but it felt like a perfect opportunity to share some of the blessings we were feeling.
One of the nurses grabbed her phone and took the video; unfortunately it ended up sort of blurry and sidewise, but you can still hear the song — “Make Us Channels of Thy Peace” by Swami Kriyananda.
We’re liking our temporary new neighborhood a lot.
It can’t compare with the Village in terms of quiet and nature, but hasn’t been that difficult of an adjustment.
There are lots of trees and many front yards are filed with flowers. I was a little sad at leaving my garden behind, so I ended up bringing two of the “deer-chomped” lantana plants with me. I figured they could do with some TLC in a gentler environment, plus I can putter around with them during the weeks that I have to stick close to home.
Lantana plant on the road to full recovery
Well, as it turns out, there’s a huge bush of the exact same lantana plant just up the street from us! Very encouraging.
What my lantana plant may become someday
And finally, there’s a neighborhood cat who’s completely at home on the back deck. It comes pretty much every day and makes itself comfortable, even trying to come inside at one point (which we firmly discouraged).
