Reading, writing, family gatherings with music, laughter and respect...OK, family gatherings.....any group of people together that is LIKE a family gathering...with at least an ATTITUDE of music, laughter and respect...listening to an imaginative child sharing what is in his mind...it is like opening a little door and looking out into an unexpectedly rich new universe where I have never been before.....allowing a clean, organized room to permeate me and straighten me up.....listening to music at Half Price Books on a Friday night while my grandson plays chess... Exploring second hand book stores while trying not to spend money (uh, that doesn't work too well)....walking in my back yard by the water in May and October, when the air is soft instead of hot and humid, and everything is green and the bright red hibiscus stand out against wide green tropical leaves nearby, and grapefruit and bananas and figs and lemons and papayas are in various stages of development, and the sun slides down green palm fronds and splinters into stories and poems in my mind.
Each of my grandchildren and nieces and nephews many times each year. Just see them walking down the street, and stop and hug and say hi and share a cookie or play a board game for a few minutes. Or comfort them through their inevitable and hopefully temporary losses. Listen to their unique perspectives about life on this planet and the music they are making. ~~~~~ Nice to see you here! Watch out for that crack in the sidewalk. Smell the Laguna? (phew) Hear the fish jumping?
Mozart, New Orleans jazz, saxaphone that is visceral and moves my feet slowly, piano and guitar, drums, folk music from around the world, slack string Hawaiian guitar, distant harmonica on a still night with pine trees around and a crackling fire, all music from the 40's, swing,.....grandchildren practicing their music...more more more - like to listen to all the stations on AOL while typing on the patio near the water at night.
Bambi, The Blue Butterfly, biographies, ..I will have to find a list....I feast ravenously on movies and books and they rumble around inside me with their names forgotten but there essence becoming part of me.
Fix-up houses/real estate shows, West Wing, the program about the woman president, news discussion shows where people actually listen to one another respectfully with a hope of all becoming further enlightened (I think I saw one once), BLUES CLUES (Steve and Joe are REAL men, or will be when all their hair is worn off and their joints are loose), LDS General Conference (I go reluctantly and return elevated and strong and ready to fly), and -- strange juxtaposition -- Grey's Anatomy, for the philosophy, of course.
(See movies)...I will have to go back and make a list...I would never have made a good English professor because I 'pig out' with books instead of marking them all in my mind in a nice recollectable order where I can tell someone about them..Hm..Well, I loved Cry, The Beloved Country.....if loved is the right word for such a book...decried the concerns, so loved the book?
People who are courageous enough to forgive, and to eschew being validated, who understand proportionality and who don't overgeneralize, who love (same thing) and who reach for the stars with the hope that others, too, will have similar good experiences in life. Real People.THE VELVETEEN RABBIT ["Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.""Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit."Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt.""Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?""It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."]