Rhumba, Candy,Possibilities And Astonishment Elita Sohmer Clayman

There is a website called The Positively Garden. The name alone is a significant one. We all get preached to be positive even when we feel it not possible. They say that positivity equals possibilities.

Thomas Edison said “If we did all the things we were capable of, we would literally astonish ourselves.”

Have you ever wanted to do something and your mind said, do not or did your mind say try it. I know someone who wanted to sky dive and that she did when she had her fiftieth birthday. She had a fun time, but her family was quite concerned. It all turned out fine and she has something to remember about it, all her life. She accomplished her desire and that is great.

 She did a small thing, some may say, but actually it was quite an enormous undertaking, some expense and lots of grand anticipation. I admire people who go about and accomplish something they have always wanted to do. I had always wanted to ballroom dance and so I accomplished that starting in 1977. It was a big undertaking and my life has never been the same since. I have all my ballroom dancing friends who joined me when I started writing about it in 1990 and I still have most of them still, now in 2012.

I know of a person who always wanted to sail a boat. He bought a small one, took courses and enjoyed taking his family out on his Sundays off. He asked me once to go along, I said no. Boating was not my thing, it was his, and he was my brother.

I wanted a pet and I bought one when the kids were about eight and twelve. I started to read up on small dogs. There was no Internet then, so I went to the bookstore and bought several books about the qualities of small dogs. One day, on a Sunday afternoon, when my husband was working, I took the kids to the pet store in the area and we looked at all the happy and sad doggies there in small cages. They took this dog out for us to see her run a bit on the store floor. She was a pure white Pekingese about eight weeks old. She looked like a big cotton candy on a stick that you buy at the fairgrounds. We left and went home and when my husband came from work; I told him I wanted to surprise the kids tomorrow when they came from school and buy this dog. The next day, while they were there, we went up and bought her. We named her Lady Candace of Pickwick, and called her Candy because she looked like the big fluffy candy at the fairgrounds.

They came home from school and there she was in the kitchen in a dog basket and both entrances to the kitchen were blocked off ,so she could not run the house, while I had to quickly go and get them from school at 330 pm. When they walked into the kitchen and saw her, they were so amazed and happy. She was a part of our family until she had to be put to sleep when she was eleven due to health problems. We loved her and probably helped her on to her demise, we treated her sometimes with a bit of chocolate candy which she loved and who she was named after.

We missed her so, that ten days later, we were perusing the newspaper ads and found another Pekingese and bought her from a private home out in Dundalk. We went there and there she was with her three siblings and her mom. She ran out when she saw us and we knew she was for us. She was caramel chocolate looking and was the most charming dog I have ever met. She had personality (does anyone call a dog with personality that) and she was a delight. We named her Rhumba after the ballroom dance, because she moved her body, as if she was dancing the Rhumba. She lasted eleven years too, Pekes have small noses and find it hard to breathe when older and very bowlegged feet. In fact, when she was only six months old, she had to be operated on for her feet at a cost of fifteen hundred dollars. We loved her so much, whereas Candy was aloof and stuck-up (she must have known she was a pure pedigreed dog, we got her papers of authenticity) and she was fine, but Rhumba was something extra special. We are too old for dogs now, but always felt lucky to have had two darling animals. We had two dogs, and just like people do, they had their own distinct personality and charm.

The funny thing was that before we had the two of them, whenever I went to visit my brother, he had to put his large dog in the cellar until I left because I was really scared of dogs then.

Mom had a dog, even though they were poor when she was a kid. Her big dog was named Pal and believe it or not, every day at the same time, my grandmother would let him out of the door and he would run to the bus stop, where he knew my mom, (his favorite of the seven kids) would find him waiting there. Mom said this was true and that was some smart and devoted dog.

Rhumba loved me all day when she was home with me, but on every other night, when my husband came home at dinner time, he was her sole favorite. She lay next to him on the downstairs sofa and would move her body to make him pet her. I was her alternate favorite person and that was OK. Candy loved me more because she was with me longer during the day and was a more serious dog. If I put on my headscarf to go and pick the kids up from somewhere, she would run to the door and know that WE were going together.

We went on a ten day trip to Europe and Mom took care of the dog. Mom lived in a terrace apartment so looking out of her living room to the porch, you could see someone’s feet. Candy did not like Mom’s friend and neighbor, Mrs.Rose and every time Mrs. Rose would try to talk to Mom from outside of the porch, Candy would see her feet and recognize her and bark at her like she was a German Shepherd dog.

Mom and Mrs. Rose always talked in the evenings standing in their doorways, before going to sleep. For ten long days, they could not, because Candy would bark at her and made her feel uncomfortable. She was a nice lady and Mom felt bad about Candy not liking her at all. Rhumba did not like the plumber because once he shined a flashlight in her eyes thinking that was funny. She never forgot it in the eleven years she lived with us. I could swear that if he was riding up the street to come to me, she sensed it five minutes before he pulled up and she started to bark before he rang the doorbell. She disliked him and never stopped barking for the whole time he was fixing something for us.

Smart dogs, both of them were and we have nice memories of them. When we started to ballroom dance in 1977, we would go downstairs to the family room and practice what we had learned. Rhumba thought to herself “what are the crazy people doing?” and she would hide under one of the sofas until we were finished. She did not realize that she was named after my favorite ballroom dance.

So we had experiences, nice and dear ones, being pet owners and it was sad to have to put them to sleep because of health problems.

When my first grandson was born, and he would visit, she had not been use to children and she would hide under the sofa, because she was wondering “who is this kid, first it was dancing and now this child.”

We have had nice experiences with life, travel, dogs, ballroom dancing, children, and grandchildren and now at our senior ages; we still are eager for great times. A saying I came across says “do small things with great love.” I can add on to that one and say and enjoy it even more because you are older now. We are our own unique selves and by being unique, we are special, deserving and accomplished folks.

It is said that every story has an ending, but in life every ending is just a new beginning.

Keep on beginning, striving, enjoying and happy. Your new beginnings are just about to begin.

Author Louise Hay says “I choose to make the rest of my life the best of my life.” She is right. You will have your positively garden of possibilities.