Staying connected to our souls as the Saturday mid-summer goal. With adventures displayed daily through the eye of photo shop on Instagram and Facebook, we travel guide through someone else’s life-at the moment. As the carpe diem magnet stares back at us from our refrigerator door we scroll and scroll some more. Daily pictures of growing (up) vegetables on the terrace and strangers newly painted front door become as routine as the morning paper and orange juice. The flowers in Lady X’s garden or the smile  on Mr. B’s grandchildren’s visiting day faces have replaced “All My Children and our voyeuristic interest in Erica’s choice for an eighth husband. So when your grandchild returns from camp, comes over for Legos and Lunch and says -” I love being here so much, it feels like I never left,” you take it as a defining moment to log out of anyone else’s newly painted front door and walk through your own with your head high and your smile big. Run on sentence quota not filled. Grass greener seekers need not apply. Do it up Saturday!

I am Wonder Woman. I wonder how time flies more quickly as an adult. It seems as if watermelon and new white sneaker season lasted ad infinitum. Brand new blue loose leaf folders, colored tabs to divide social studies from algebra and colorful pencil holders already? Do you remember new commercials for Fall tv shows advertised in July? Did Ginsburgs and Wechslers sport alpacas and madras blouses second week in July? Help me out on this one Julia’s . Did the street lights go on so much earlier in the summer then they do now? Father Time slow down dude we need to take a breath. I wonder when self help books turned into “recalibrating the soul” GPS style. If you don’t say that this could happen, if you do this perhaps a better outcome. No one taught us life on lifes terms when they waited to pay for our new dress to wear to Temple for the holidays. We now speed dial our way to becoming more evolved. Hot rock massages, bikram yoga and acupressure lead the way to mojitos, Guacamole toast and red velvet cupcakes. 

I wonder where the days of climbing the monkey bars, wearing very tight white rubber bathing caps to ward off the chlorine effects when we swam and ring dings went? 

If the line was busy you called your friend back to tell her about the new colored bangle bracelet you got and how well dressed your Barbie will be the next time she comes over to play. 

So as the Sunday before August rears it’s head why not “turn the beat around and “stop thinking about tomorrow,”- hey look how far it got us. I think I’ll i tune my way through the half an hour on the treadmill, eat my half of everything bagel with scallion cream cheese and “let the memories live again.” Only this time I’ll sing along as Frankie Valli croons late December back in “63” in my ear. Make it a good one “peeps.” “Oh what a night.”

Unapologetic and ambitious with a rich inner self. The parlance of my inner voice often gets out bid by insecurity, self blame and a low sense of worth. Well you know what-with a mustering up of strength and determination I move to say “look the other way mamala,” kick the crap out of those random flies at Your picnic in life. Let’s do it Monday!

Mah Jongg My Mother’s Game?So many of the old adages are now living at my front door. Cliches that I never got, couldnt internalize or just wasnt ready for have now come into play with regularity. Fortuitously, they serve as the bettor at our Mah-jongg table. More forgiving and grateful, less verbalizing differences seems to be our new posture. We sit down and the magic occurs. First game out we adjust our seat, call on our strategy and throw “the dice.” We leave so much more to chance. No more rebuffing what is, just fact and acceptance feel like the right path to take. We flinch at the first interference in our game of Life–and in turn almost welcome it. A phone call from someone’s kid sharing the joy over their daughter’s ballet recital is typical. An interruption because the deocrator went to the wrong place, perhaps. The bell ringing when the handyman comes to prepare the terrace for planting. We pool our woes and share our joys. Are we lucky or have we turned happenstance into “sheer” delight?

My parents had an activity with their weekly group of couples called “Coffee and…” I am now getting that the “and” was so much more than cheese danish or chocolate babka.

I love our “and.” When I was younger and had a piece of chicken. I would eat the wings last. I savored the best for then. I now sit down to our chicken lunch and go for the wings first. I decided it’s because I cant wait to get back to what we came for. I know that the real reason I enjoy this activity is because it recapitulates my parents activity of continuity. Well here’s to so many more days of Mah Jongg “And.”

I woke up had oatmeal and was 65. The good times like the bouncing dots of a text message being replied to have flown by. Luckily, I have built a lovely little corner for them in the attic of my mind. They are always there to call upon. Reliable, friendly and filled with warmth. Haven’t you read a book twice? You know what’s coming, but for the race of your heart and the a-ha moments that gentle recapitulation offers. The cost of admission worth every penny heads up that I’ve saved to gain entrance. Through very little provocation I tap into them. I share the euphoric recall thru a posted picture that I carry with me in my eyes only. That one moment in time that brought pink to my cheeks, that offered a glow to last a lifetime. Her look, his smile like a first kiss, daring and passionate. A job well done and a memory worth the wait. And then, like the fleeting moment of the Robin Red Breast sitting upon your lawn who just stopped to announce Spring it goes.Luckily a new day to create a new moment. Polaroid that feeling  that lunch with your old friend’s offers. Document the look on a young child’s face when they jump into a cool swimming pool on a hot summer day. Today I will steal a glimpse when my #niecestopieces bites into her “Instant Heart Attack” with turkey sandwich from the Second Avenue Deli.. Don’t worry that picture is all mine! Make a memory today that will last a lifetime. 

Three’s on the Fourth. In fairy tales three is considered the magical number. The third test or the third try deemed the moment to overcome difficulties when presented to heroes and heroines. In rituals, actions are performed three times. The tripod of Life is represented with three joining rings, known as the Borromeam Rings. They symbolize the Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit. In Irish folklore, if you catch a Leprechaun and set him free, he will grant you three wishes. The Rosetta Stone is written in three scripts used during ancient Egypt. The three wise monkeys, also know as the mystic apes- hence, the proverbial principle “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.Adages galore- three on a match, threes a crowd, three is company- third times a charm, three coins in a fountain-counting to three. Hip, hip hooray. Away we go.

Succulents, sunshine, sushi– bubbles, bangles and beads–perfume, parties and pizza, fantasies, flowers, friendship- candy, carousels and contentment-

My three wishes, going forward on this fourth day of July is for Faith, Wisdom and Courage. Sounds like a winning trifecta in the trimester for –The Land of the Free, because of the Brave.