Day 3
Wow, I am humbled by the number of those who made a video and/or donated. So far, I have seen an artist, a child, a dear friend of Matt’s, a volleyball team, an assistant hockey coach, a couple of students, an old friend of one of my other kids, a few cousins, and someone from the law firm where Matthew interned, all honoring him with a #12 challenge. I have no idea how to find the pictures and videos (every time I try to search #12challenge, nothing shows up), but my kids seem to be finding them for me. Every time I get shown another picture or video, my eyes well with tears; the challenges are all so beautiful and the donations are sincerely appreciated. It is truly a loving tribute to Matt, and I know he would be extremely honored. I am grateful for all of those who have taken an interest in the #12 Challenge.
So today, I completed a 12,000 step treadmill walk/jog. I think tomorrow I am going to try an easier task, because as I was on the treadmill, I realized the purpose of this was not to see how much pain I could put myself in. I must admit though, when I was doing it, I reflected on Matt. As I was plodding along, I used to think about how easy Matthew made running look—it was a thing of beauty. He had long legs and I was convinced he had an expanded rib cage because he could run and run and run, and he never seemed out of breath. While I worked on today’s challenge, I listened to some of Matthew’s favorite songs and artists, and a couple of my recent favorite ones too. Here are some of the songs I played:
The Goo Goo Dolls---“Iris”---Matthew loved The Goo Goo Dolls ever since he was 3 or 4 years old. As others were listening to Barney the Purple Dinosaur, he wanted to listen to The Goo Goo Dolls. One night, in the fall of 2015, at the Music is Art Festival in Buffalo, Matthew and I stood in the pouring rain with about 50 other people in the audience, as we watched The Goo Goo Dolls sing “Iris”, and with our awful voices, we belted out the song with them.
Tupac Songs—This was a struggle for me to listen to these, but I know he loved two of Tupac’s songs—"Dear Mama” being one of them.
The Lion King and Wicked songs—his two absolute favorite musicals.
Taylor Swift---I don’t think he had one specific favorite Taylor Swift song, but Matthew was never ashamed to admit that he was a true and loyal Swiftie.
Maroon Five—“Memories”—Cheers to you Matthew
Beatles—‘Strawberry Fields Forever” -- One of my new favorite songs since I recently completed the Beatles Peloton ride. The lyrics speak to me.
We have always been a musical family. Well, let me preface that. We can’t sing, we don’t play any instruments, most of us can’t dance, and some of us do not have rhythm, but we all absolutely love and appreciate music. We listen to most kinds of music, and for us, it speaks to and soothes our souls. So, for today’s donation and act of kindness, they are music-based.
To recap today:
1. I struggled to walk/jog 12,000 steps on the treadmill, and the only reason I finished it was because I knew Matthew would have wanted me to. Plus the music kept me going.
2. For my random act of kindness, I gave a musician a gift, thanking him for sharing his beautiful gift of music with many. I guess it’s a semi-random act of kindness because I know who this musician is—I don’t know this person well, so maybe it will be considered an almost-random act.
3. My donation today was to the Juara Foundation. This is a group of young people who have brought their love of music, education, science and their many other talents to the rural communities in the Brazilian Pantanal. If it wasn’t for this foundation, the communities in this part of the would probably not be exposed to these “luxuries” which we sometimes take for granted. The young people who volunteer for the Juara Foundation had to take a hiatus from traveling to Brazil during the summer of 2020 because of the pandemic, but I believe they are still giving music lessons remotely and hope to be able to travel back soon. Matthew’s cousin Alex is part of this foundation, and one of his “jobs” is that he volunteers his time teaching violin lessons to some of the people the Juara Foundation serves.
I am a day behind in these entries. I only finished two days of challenges, yet we are on day three. I guess I will be writing on the 13th, even though the challenge finishes on the 12th.