“Why are there so many songs about rainbows-

And what’s on the other side?

Rainbows are visions.

They’re only illusions.

Rainbows have nothing to hide.

So we’ve been told.

And some choose to believe it.

I know they’re wrong wait and see.

Someday we’ll find it.

The rainbow connection.

The lovers, the dreamers and me.”

If Dolly could.
“DollyWood.”
She dreamed herself into a corner and lived her life
Center Stage.
She redefined being a female artist.
Throughout her career she remained all the rage.
All she had to do is “smile that smile” and there goes all our defenses. Here you come again and here we go.
From 9 to 5 your Imagination Library helped plant seeds, keeping dreams alive.
From the hills of Tenesse you did haul.
Entertaining the world was simply your call.
Life would treat you kind.
You had all that you dreamed of.
You wished others joy and happiness.
But above all you wished for love.
Your talent extraordinary, your heart rang so true.
When it came to caring for Carl Thomas Dean. There was nothing you didn’t do.
From The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
To the porch in Steel Magnolias.
You kept us entertained while sipping your Diet Colas.
In your “coats of many colors, that your mama made for you.”
Your legacy we will carry. A reminder, when returning favors holds court.
You paid it forward second to no one.
May your soul know the depth of the universal support. Amen!

Once in Awhile-

Dear Ordainer of Weddings and Funerals. Would we still have tried as hard? Perhaps overlooked more.

Please stand on that long line over there. That’s the one that says “Weddings and Funerals only.”

You don’t see it? It’s the longest line in the room. The shared celebrations and the pool your sorrows with tones of mandatory invites and holiday seats filled.

The terms Kismet, Destiny and Beshart suggests- the prophetic,
the meant to be’s.

How much does luck or chance factor into who we go the distance with? Does forever mean until the holiday meal is over, the card game is finished, or when someone moves off the block?

Early on we come to learn Holiday Anxiety can exist all year long .The uncomfortable dread of the “do we have to” kicks in.

As social media has connected us to our past, we have become voyeurs into the lives of the people we met through our “chance” encounters.

Reunions, cousin clubs and catch up events offer the second time around opportunities. If we try hard can we champion our first time around defeats and turn our once in awhiles, into the more oftens?

Our primordial worries of will we be liked, accepted, invited back have subsided with time. Some of the people…

So we learn back to the future isn’t always in the canasta cards. The surprise of the well blended double date shows up. We walk away, look at one another and think yes, a take two would be very nice, indeed.

We spoke with the pharmacist at CVS yesterday about waiting until October for our, as he referred to it “upper classmen” flu shot. What a gentle way of saying senior discounts accepted.

So as a member of that category we took our senior day discount on our over the counter Nexium and went home and took a nap.

My take away is, we can dwell on missed opportunities and bemoan our fate about who has stayed and who is gone, or we can accept that our time with them was inscribed as exactly what it was “meant to
be.” Make it a reach out to someone you love day. I just did.

Just have fun series. On the “tail end” of summer.

As we are planning another semester at The U of Broken Sound- we look back.

Profound, renowned with two feet on the ground.

We were meeted, greeted and not deleted. 🙏

We played games with cards, tiles and some balls.

With pilates our cores got stronger, with stretch class our legs seem longer.

Waited on line at Publix for our “Bogo’s”-buy one get one free.

Had a shopping cart collision at The Boy’s.

Go ahead taste a piece -the fruit it’s so sweet.

Another great spot for a- you’ll never know who you’ll meet.

Remember the woman I told you about who I met at canasta?

She was faster. a master and said “give a kick” let’s have coffee afta.

Could you plotz?

So with 6 months in we went for the win.

We played jukebox bingo.

Shared dinners at the Old Course with friends.

Got an A in listening to knee problems, sciatica, some dermatitis, maybe the flu.

The elongated complaints that never end.

Met a neighbor who knew a friend, who (go figure) whose grandkids go to camp with a Gom kid or two.

We joined a class to connect to our writing. Met a group who express themselves this way too. Our teacher is a woman named Sonia. She gives us prompts to write and share with our class. It is our best kept secret at BS. We look forward to returning alas.

As we pack up for the end of season. Add a pinch of sweet sorrows, laced with hugs good- bye. (for now.)

Our take away memories of winter. Our best shot, a wholesome try.

See ya after the holidays in October.

We’ll be back at the end of Fall.

We are hitting the ground running, ( maybe a quick walk.)

G-d speed to one and all.

Back to the Future-The expression refers to the time when one has to stop (over) thinking about the things they could, or not, have done in the past so that what happened wouldn’t have happened.

We took a stroll back in time to our beloved Rhinebeck. Flowers, food, art shops, cheese shops, kitchenware, knives sharpened, Bread Alone pastries and anything and everything at Adam’s Fairacre Farm. Attitudes of “disarming stress” was the common denominator. The paradigm in a soundtrack would be “let’s get it on,”- “ girls just wanna have fun,” celebrate good times come on- thank you Kool and the Gang. The familiar turns on the drive up the Taconic imprinted in our memory as if it were yesterday. Deja vu in full gear as we set out to exhume a long lived, feel good moment in time. We sprinted back to a community where our collection of play things unfolded like the adage about bike riding. Our emotional vision autocorrected as it’s been many years and a deleterious pandemic in between our then and our now. We had a group of peeps that shared an attitude of playful wonder. “Come eat by me.” Or, we are going to the neighbors for their signature dinners and warm embraces. This encapsulated chapter in our playbook is medicinal and holds a woven spot, likened to a puppy nestled in our laps. Sometimes you Can pick up where you left off. Especially now more than ever pick up where you left off, eat the dish you loved in the corner table at your favorite bistro- don’t miss the sale on lavender scented candles at the shop local boutiques. Knock on your door number one, win a -Trip Back to the Future. “Just a passing breeze filled with memories. Of the golden smile that introduced me to-The Days of Wine and Roses and you.”Make it a great day.

70 cents on the Dollar.

We woke up had oatmeal and wrote 74 on our application for a Florida drivers license. The years, like the bouncing dots of a text message being replied to have flown by. Resplendent with a potpourri of memories that have marched along with us like dutiful soldiers. Grateful to have built lovely little corners for them in the attic of our minds.

They are always there to call upon (especially when the path you are walking on is temporarily unpaved.)

Haven’t you read a book twice? You know what’s coming and still look forward to the race of your heart and the a-ha moments. The cost of admission-down memory lane every penny (heads up) that we’ve saved to gain entrance, worth it. Through very little provocation we tap into them. We share our euphoric recall thru posted pictures that we carry with us in our eyes only. Those moments in time that brought pink to our cheeks and offered an everlasting glow. Her look, his smile when you gave them a collage that documents their happy moments. Doesn’t get better, in-spite of all the the crazy glue stuck to your fingers times.

Then like the fleeting visit of the Robin Red Breast sitting upon your lawn who just stopped by to announce Spring-they go. You start another project, read another book, or exhume memories spending time throwing out old sweaters and picture frames.

Lucky to have a new day to create a new moment. We Polaroid the feelings that having lunch with childhood friends offers and document the look on a young child’s face when they jump into a cool swimming pool on a hot summer day. Just for today turn the other way, minimize disappointments and maximize your good fortune.

Make it a great day and who knows perhaps along the way add a new memory that will last a lifetime.

Recognize opportunities-

“somethings only come around once.”

Don’t bank on luck alone.

Greta Gerwig, who conceived and directed the buzzy live-action film Barbie and might we add highest grossing movie directed by a woman, told The New York Times that she hoped watching the movie would be a quasi-spiritual activity for its viewers.

Run on sentence counters that was a doozy.

The feeling she wanted to achieve, she said, is the same one she felt as a child when she was a guest at the Shabbat dinners of close family friends who were observant Jews.

“I remember feeling the sense of,

“Whatever your wins and losses were for the week, whatever you did or you didn’t do, when you come to this table, your

value has nothing to do with that.” Make it an embellish your virtues and disregard disappointments kind of weekend. Shabbat Shalom.

Whose Life is it Anyway?
.       A. e I. o. u.
A virtual who knew.
A little siri a lot of algorithms.
What is right or is it true?
Am I writing this, or is it coming from You?
I before E except after C.
Artificial sweetener not good for you.
Not good for me.

That was the week that was.
“And All the News that’s Fit to Print.”
Appears on the masthead of our daily read.
Will creativity be abbreviated? 
Or replaced by a digital degree?

We write some prose add a lyric or two.
Original thoughts add a concept we construe.
Will our world as we know it.
Be more simple, more true.
Usurped by learning techniques wiser than me, bigger than you?

ChatGPT can create an AI text.
But our experiences we behold.
Recalling our adventures a computer code can’t unfold.

Keeping our erasers, our inkwells close by.
Our modus operandi holding our head towards the sky.
Our feelings are our treasures that can’t be taken away.
Regardless of the fact AI is here to stay.
          Take Two.
U of Instagram and Fb.
How to make the best Onion Soup or where to buy new crochet needles, we learned from Social Media. 
Whether it is paired with our morning coffee and a Kossars bialy or over a cocktail (lots of lemons) at days end. We scroll the ever loving, addictive mother lode. (insta.)
Who went where or who did what, come out come out wherever you are I know what you ate for lunch.

So just by chance so and so we were supposed to meet before the interview at the 92Y for sushi. I thought you had to babysit your grandchildren.
Opps posting is a b-tch, well certainly as our memory becomes a blur. 

So Bethenny show us the best chicken salad you are trying out today. And add a Melissa’s cupcake they are here to stay.

Dear Columbo- we are having a conundrum of sorts. We need your help in solving the mystery of misplaced time.

We know it was here somewhere close and yet it flew by. If only we can feign absentmindedness as well as you do.

The early years we recall euphorically and with more clarity than yesterdays lunch.

The toys we played with, the Pyramids along the Nile under the Blue Moon, and the “lilac trees in the heart of town” just on the street where you lived.
No brainers.

The exact spot where we did our homework and our after school snacks, ( hostess twinkies and pink snowballs -yum) still top of mind. Where were you when Kennedy was shot? No problem.

The Saturdays in high school when we went shopping for name necklaces and fitted button down shirts with large, sharp, pointy collars. Missing Wassers French fries.

With ease we remember the day to days of our jobs and hard earned pay/commissions. You still with us?

All the backgammon games at Cavallero’s and dancing on the crowded floor at Studio 54. We can still turn that “beat around.” Love a little Vicki Sue Robinson.

Not sure how we arrived home pre-Uber days and woke up in our own beds, two aspirins and at least 8 hours of sleep later.

Of course, yes, our share houses on Fire Island and in the Hamptons. Hazy days of summer to say the least. Soda, pretzels and that Almaden bottle of Chablis.

The Weddings, babies, watching school plays our #niecestopieces starred in, indeed.

Easily remember Family Thanksgivings, Chanukah and birthday parties.

No, it’s more a case that the long agos and far aways are accumulating into decades.

So Peter Falk when you’re trying to figure out who stole the cookie from the cookie jar- please give us some answers about all the years. As we debrief our time thru picture albums and how we looked in pedal pushers, skorts, shifts and A- line dresses. Oh the fun, the glory days and our first not so fun hang over. But Columbo how did we get to so many yrs.old?

“Yes G-d father-time we’ve come to ask a favor on the day of your daughters wedding.”

Can you please slow down. Our friends are having milestone b-days, we are going to bar mitzvahs of our friend’s grandchildren and our young nieces are having babies of their own. We would take back our own good and not so good luck. Wouldn’t change much about fate and how it has unfurled. But, for heavens sake the only thing we really want to be binge watch are the shows we taped. So Columbo, “one more thing,” exactly what were you wearing under the famed raincoat?

Have a euphoric recall kind of day as you break out a pair of clam diggers.