Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Open Letter to Pat

Pat,

Thank you for taking me on this cruise. You were the hostess with the mostest! Though I limped and made little "agh" sounds when I climbed stairs and sometimes retreated to the Solarium to gather my thoughts and to knit little brown squares for bear heads, and you marched, without me, with much speed and confidence into your daily chores, we had a great time.










You are giving Mother and Dick credit for financing the cruise, but I know it is your generosity that allowed me to see Boston, Portland, Kennebunkport, Bar Harbor, Saint John, Halifax, and Peggy's Cove. And you are responsible for the great view from cabin 9258 (the very last cabin at the very end of the ship - 150 steps of hallway to cover - where one can step onto the balcony and see 180 degrees of spectacular sunrises)



Thank you Mother, Dick, and Pat.
Love,
Gigi

Hakuna Matata


I try to make Hakuna Matata my partner in daily life. And since manifestation is necessary to keep me motivated, I needed to create a visual for the musical metaphor. In my eyes stress is largely a self-imposed handicap; unfortunately this is something I tend to forget quite often. It probably sounds much simpler than it actually is, but ........if a situation is difficult to deal with, one has to take action: either change the situation or change one's approach to it. It does relieve some stress anyway.

Before I went on a New England cruise with my friend Pat I began to stress over several issues: Would my leg give out and would I be a burden instead of an asset?
Would our dissimilar sleeping habits become a problem? Would the lack of fall color upset Pat? She seemed to have her heart set on red maple leaves and yellow birch foliage.

Then I gave it the once-over. My right leg would probably not hurt, just slow me down; I would limp as fast as I could, but I would not miss out on any of the land tours. For my night time restlessness I packed a flashlight. Besides, reading or playing solitaire on the iPad at low light setting "under cover" would solve that problem. As for the leaves .......nothing I can do about their condition ....... not my problem.

For the embodiment of my stress theory I knitted an oversized Bear; I doubled all the numbers - stitches and rows - of the pattern and immersed myself fully in the creation of MY personal bear. Under stress? H. a. B! Hug a Bear!






To my surprise, while looking for travel size toothpaste, I came across a t-shirt that showed Simba and Pumbaa walking above the words Hakuna Matata.



To give the bear total authority over my stress level he needed a catchy name. When I found out that Matata means "troublemaker" in Swahili, I was sold.

Meet Matata, the Troublemaker, who reminds me that "Hakuna Matata" means "no worries!"




By the way, the iPad is an ideal "restless night" partner; I knew this from my chemo days. Angry Birds, yoga music, solitaire, and Herr Goethe kept me busy on the moonlit balcony of cabin 9258 and in the darkness, under the coverlet of my bed. I limped a lot, up and down the many decks of the "Brilliance of the Seas," in and out of buses, through the streets of Boston, Portland, Kennebunkport, Bar Harbor, Saint John, Halifax, and Peggy's Cove. Occasionally my leg buckled and I released a tiny sound of displeasure. We had sunshine throughout the seven days of the cruise. Boston was beautiful, Portland, Maine and Kennebunkport interesting, St. John and Halifax busy. Little Peggy's Cove - 34 permanent inhabitants and nine feet of snow in the winter -was a sweet addition to our land excursions, after the government shutdown closed Acadia National Park to us.









The only real fall color we saw was alongside the highway. Pat looked longingly out the bus window, but it was enough to make her happy.