So when I turned “65” five years ago we celebrated at The Kotel in Israel. We contacted the Women at The Wall and created a rite of passage. I raised my hand to G-d, all the time holding onto the wall. Social security, Medicare with AARP F drug plan (no not that kind)- nexium cocktails, carpal tunnel procedures, medical tests you can’t pronounce; blah, blah, blah. Concurrently, however we brought back the supplemental bag of the real stuff that comes along with age appropriate hearing loss (really?)- whatever that means. Longer periods of peace of mind on the top of the list. Recognizing “what” really matters and “who” doesn’t. Bye Felicia. Binge watching yes, The Sopranos from Jan. 10th-1999, has replaced, once again, meeting for lunch or dinner and theoretically paying attention to the sign that says “only take your masks off while eating.” Emoji sad. Ok, back to Israel. During our visit we met up with a high school buddy (Jon Kuritsky) for those in the know and his wife Diana. They live in a beautiful village on the Mediterranean several hours north of Tel Aviv called Shavei Zion. It is in between Acco and Nahariya. They do many varied things with their lives. She’s a writer, he tows their land and they operate an inn/spa called NEA. We learned about a part of life or in fact death we never knew about before. Diana and Jon, pay it forward in a meritorious way. They are part of community of people who are known as Chevra Kadisha. Their responsibilities are to prepare the dead before burial. At first we thought how morbid, how scary. When we realized someone chooses to do so as the religious experience of being the last person to see the dead, we came to see it differently. Our hats goes off to them, as it would not even be wIthin the realm of possibility for us to ever consider. Diana introduced me to not just any soap that they use. We bought it at the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv. It is multi-purposed and so many bars and years later we still use it. Our charitable “paying it forward” has a much different tone to it. My take away is that symbolically the soap is a form of cleansing the body and mind. So just for today as we simultaneously count blessings all the while trying hard not to step on the cracks (so we don’t break our mothers back)- let’s go to grateful. We buy lite mayo and thinks it tastes fine, sign up for Pilates and understand the studio is now closed due to the continuous virus surge, and better understand the FOMO’s (feelings of missing out) really only exist in our minds. Let’s go with the meant to be Wednesday.