Aurora and Gina

June 9th, 2008,  a Monday

Some things restore your faith.  You may not have even realized that your faith needed restoring.  But when it happens, you know. 

Hillary Clinton restored my faith on Saturday.  She finally took the stage as a woman, not a candidate who happened to be a woman, and spoke from her heart.  This glimpse into her soul filled me with both pride and regret.  If only I could have seen this side of her a year ago.  I think she was listening to a lot of guys (men) who told her how she had to act to win the nomination and she came off tough and harsh and bitter sometimes.  And, yeah, she did that awfully well which was scary.  I wrote a while ago about how sometimes things we work for our whole lives, things we believe we are destined to be, are not what we actually are meant to become.  First you have to figure it out, and then you have to change the course.  There is no doubt that Hillary thought she would become president and she was headed straight down that road.  But when she released that and became herself, it seemed clear that she may be figuring it out and will spend the coming months planning the change in course.  Good for you, girl!  And good for us, too.  I can't wait to see where your new road leads.

Ballet Arizona restored my faith on Friday.  I had pretty much stopped going to the "local" ballet, preferring instead to see only world class companies on trips to the East Coast.  (Oh my gosh, I had become a ballet snob, an elitist.)  There have been moments spent watching the New York City Ballet or American Ballet Theatre that have left lifelong impressions of beauty and joy, as only they can, or so I thought.  But then we got Ib Anderson, as new Artistic Director, who comes from that world class world and decided to make our company his canvas.  So we ventured out to the all Balanchine evening on Friday.  What convinced us was the Phoenix Symphony providing the music and the anticipation of a new star who spends half her time dancing on the East Coast.  And ballet is all about the stars.  And Miss Natalia didn't disappoint.  As the sleepwalker in a fully staged mini-ballet, she made us forget where we were, who we were, and simply transported us to the heights of imagination and beauty with her own imagination and ethereal beauty.  And she did it while "sleepwalking" with a candle in her hand.  I was so excited!  They were having a sale on bears in the lobby and we found one, Aurora, who really looked like she wanted to come home with us.  Some say I accumulate other bears just to swipe their clothing for myself.  But it was clear that Aurora hated her dress and wanted to get out of it more than anything which was not true of the other bears who looked, to a less intuitive bear, exactly like her.  So we brought Aurora home and I got her dress which was a perfect fit and is featured in the photo above.  Don't you love the scoop neck with the pink roses on me?  And Aurora chose a navy corduroy jumper of mine that was a little too big for me which she really likes but chose to keep her ballet shoes.  So we are all happy, and with our faith restored in "local" ballet.  Thank you, Ib and Natalia.  Welcome to Phoenix.

On Sunday, we were waiting, waiting, waiting behind another car at a drive-through.  We had only ordered one drink and got stuck behind a big truck with a big family inside who ordered a big meal.  It was taking forever and we were getting impatient and irritated.  We shouldn't have because we had a nice air conditioned car to wait in and were listening to great music on satellite radio with hundreds of channels to choose from and it was a beautiful day.  We should have just relaxed and used that time to enjoy ourselves.  But no, we got cranky thinking about how we only needed just one thing and what was the hold-up anyway?  We actually considered just backing up and getting the heck out of that line, looking frequently in the rear view mirror to make sure no one had pulled up behind us to ruin our chance for a quick getaway.  Finally the big bag appeared out of the pick-up window and was handed over to the driver.  It seemed all the kids in the car were pretty excited about it, too, the way their heads were bobbing up and down in the back window.  Maybe it was a Sunday tradition, taking home this big meal.  It was finally our turn to drive up to the window and the very nice man handed us our large drink and said he was only going to charge us for a small size because we had to wait so long.  In that moment, all our frustration just melted away because he noticed, he cared, and he acted on it.  We thanked him and drove away, smiling, amazed at the power of kindness and courtesy.   The man who works the window at the drive through on Sunday afternoon restored our faith.

In honor of summer, and what should be a time of relaxation and fun, I am changing my blog schedule to Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Maybe there is something you can change in your life that will make it feel more like summer to you, too. 

GR