My Favorite Month

---

In life story writing I find it helpful when developing a list of things to write about to consider some of my favorite things. 

Favorite music, favorite sports team, favorite food, favorite places to visit–you get the idea and you can develop a pretty good list.

I often recommend that people consider what their favorite year has been in their life. Or, if not favorite, the most significant.

I take this further with my favorite month. For years now it has been June. There are lots of reasons why.

Summer Time Is the Right Time

I am a big fan of summer. June is the first true month of the summer, a time to slow down and enjoy the days, so what’s not to love? You might say the heat and humidity, but I easily dodge that issue. Okay, maybe not easily, but when it comes to temperatures I much prefer warm over cold.

My personal life history includes many significant things that have happened in June. Several family members have birthdays in June. Also, my sobriety anniversary is in the month of June. It is an important marker to me because it began a journey that changed my life for the better. I am just one of those people who need to be clean and sober and I am grateful for that every day.

---

The Good With the Bad

Not every important day in the month of June has been a happy one. Just a few years ago on the first day of June we had to make the difficult decision to give our beloved dog, Shadow, his ticket across the Rainbow Bridge. He lived about 14 years and he was a good boy, a very good boy.

On June 15, 2006 my mom passed away. She was in home hospice for the last couple of months of her life and surrounded by family and friends. I was present with her when she took her last breath and that was a powerful moment.

I Love Baseball

---

I have always loved baseball, both playing and watching. When I was a kid June days were filled with bats, balls and gloves. I played little league baseball and later the older leagues, even a bit of high school ball. Too bad I wasn’t good enough to go pro because that would be a real dream job. Are you kidding me? Playing baseball as your occupation, what a thrill!

Over the years I have made it to several Major League games. I still remember the hot and sticky day in Kansas City when I was probably thirteen and got to see the Royals play. A year later when we had moved to California a trip to Chavez Ravine proved memorable with a great game between the hometown LA Dodgers and the New York Mets.

My favorite team is the Boston Red Sox so the times I've been to Fenway Park are lifetime highlights.

I Just Felt Like Running

---

I didn’t set out with a big goal to be a long distance runner. It just kind of happened when I was in middle school and there was an after school group who were into running. I thought I would try it and it turned out I was decent at it. I still can hear our coach remark, “Gilbert! Is that you?” when he saw me coming down the home stretch of a cross-country run in a much better than expected time.

There were a couple of years in high school cross country, but after that I pretty much stopped. Until I was fifty years old. Then I took up long distance running again and my first half marathon was in San Diego on June 4, 2006. I ran both for the experience and also to raise money for cancer research through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training. You can read more about that with my post, The Finish Line.

---

Apparently I am not the only one to think about their favorite month. According to some polls conducted by YouGov.com June tends to rank in the top 5 for the adults they polled.

For writers, aspiring and experienced, there is National Writing Day in June. As stated on literacyhive.org it is an annual celebration of creative writing for young people.

Naturally any day that encourages and celebrates writers, particularly life story and memoir writers, resonates with me. It’s my favorite type of writing, although I have dabbled in fiction and I journal quite frequently.

Give some thought to your favorite month of the year and I encourage you to write about why that is. What are the reasons and special occasions that mark that month as significant in your life?