Okay.
I’m 77 years old.
I’m finally coming to terms with things I will never be good at:
Accounting.
Giving blood.
Ballet.
Baking challah from scratch.
On the other hand, I’m cultivating and enhancing things I’m already partially skilled at — taking them to a new level. Like having FUN!
Yes, I’m taking time for frivolity.
As many of us already know, Judaism encourages joy and community cohesiveness through participation, celebration and engagement. Judaism also holds us accountable for good experiences. God made the physical world for us to enjoy. Good food, pleasant music, beautiful scenery. This includes anything that involves the “five senses.” My husband and I “drank the Kool-Aid.”
We in Tampa have a Mardi Gras type celebration in the month of January: Gasparilla Day. Gasparilla was the nickname of the legendary pirate, Jose Gaspar. It has been said that Gaspar in the late 18th and early 19th centuries was a feared pirate, terrorizing the coastal waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Gasparilla Day is celebrated by a massive parade, with a huge population of people donning eye patches, fake swords and ruffled blouses roaming around as pirates. The fact that Gaspar himself may never have existed and the fact that the massive amounts of buried treasure he supposedly left behind may also be a huge urban legend does nothing to dull the palpable excitement of the day.
My husband Steven and I, after living in Tampa for nearly 20 years finally dressed up this year for Gasparilla Day.
Every month or so, it seems another health issue pops up:
Why? Because it’s all part of my new philosophy.
Sleep apnea.
Osteoporosis.
Hearing loss.
Memory issues.
Cramping in my lower extremities.
Elevated blood pressure.
Elevated cholesterol levels.
A loudly clicking jaw.
This column isn’t about my physical therapy regimen for osteoporosis, my night appliance to reorient my jaw to eliminate the dangers from sleep apnea nor about my frustration with my hearing aids. This column is about a decision I made that applies to every new health challenge I am and will be facing.
For every additional decrement of aging I am diagnosed with, I am committed to matching it with a new experience — an experience outside my comfort zone.
Because we all know getting out of our silos encourages personal growth, builds self-confidence, helps us learn new skills, broadens our perspectives, fine tunes our resilience and enhances our creativity.
So far, here are just a few of my new adventures:
Treating myself to a tarot card reading.
Resurrecting my dormant practice of yoga.
Upping my traveling: A long overdue, first time visit to Key West with my cousins led me to driving a golf cart for the very first time.
Ditching my random scraps of paper that I write my daily “To Do List” on and replacing the scraps with a spiral binder where I write down everything I need to both do and remember.
Checking out from my local library memoirs of inspiring men and women navigating life’s challenges instead of incessantly ordering novels of escapism from Amazon that I don’t read.
Embarking on a closet purge to donate things I no longer wear to my favorite thrift store — starting with throwing out my faded, holey old lady underwear.
Putting a fat purple streak in my hair and henna tattoos on both of my hands.
And switching to a whole new style of underwear!
The nasty decrements of aging may continue to rear their ugly heads, but I will courageously meet each one with a new experience.
Welcome to old age, baby, and….
Keep Preserving Your Bloom,
Iris Ruth Pastor
