Favorite Things

I did many of my favorite things this weekend, which I didn't expect, since I had chemo on Friday.
Here is what I did: rode 28 miles on my bike, from Loveland to Morrow, to eat ice cream, watched Riverfest Fireworks, ate a BLT at Mt. Adams Pavilion before the fireworks (bacon is better than ice cream, ask Jim Gaffigan), swam two more times in our sparkly clean perfect temperature pool, sat in the sun and almost got sunburned...but didn't.
I started out believing that this would be a difficult weekend, but ended up believing that this was one of the best weekends of the summer. What happened? I found a book that my friend Sharon had given me in 2007, when I first was sick, and I had read it and put it away. So three years later I read it again, this weekend, and discovered what I had been missing for the past 3 months. Hope.
Hope for healing, hope for good days, hope for peace and joy. Something deep down rustled in my soul, something that had been neglected and cast aside. This hope woke up, put on it's big girl shoes and got going. Down to Mt. Adams, out to Loveland, into the brightest of days.