Iris Ruth Pastor's Blog, page 8

What’s Wrong with this Picture?

Like most of my friends and family members, I do a lot less shopping in person and a lot more ordering stuff online these days.

Amazon is my go-to. I simply ADORE the “free shipping.”

Of course, dabbling on and off in handcrafted items myself, I am also a big fan of ETSY. There “free shipping” is hit or miss.

Last night I searched for “kids picture frames” on Etsy. I found two very similar items – one had free shipping and the other one did not. You guessed it: the seller who offered the free shipping had just added the cost to her selling price – so it was a toss-up on which to purchase.

Usually when I order something, I have a mental image of the packaging. Sometimes I’m annoyed when I order a book and the box is comfortably larger than the book’s dimensions. Sometimes, I get mad at myself for ordering two items hours apart only to realize what a waste I have incurred when they arrive in two separate deliveries. 

Nothing, however, rivaled what was delivered to me this morning.

Last summer, I had ordered some ridiculously expensive under eye cream, whose manufacturer was “a pioneer in anti-aging cellular therapy” and whose origins can be traced back to the famous La Prairie Clinic in Switzerland. Not surprisingly, it was touted to do the following:
Lift
Nourish
Firm
Hydrate
Reduce under eye bags and
Restore firmness

Who could resist????
 And to be honest, the stuff worked – gradually – but it worked. So I ordered it again!

Below is a photo of the packaging for a jar that weighs .68 ounces and measures about 1.5 inches in diameter.

I’m speechless.

So I start to do a little research.

Shopping online creates five times more emissions from packaging for online orders than from emissions of things bought in a store and put in plastic or paper bags (or the consumer’s own carriers), so says Anna Baluch is an article entitled “Is online shopping more sustainable?”

On the other hand, online shopping eliminates car trips and their emissions. Retail space then can be re-configured to carry less inventory and utilize less energy and less heating and cooling. 

On the other hand, online shopping leads to five times more returned products, increasing the environmental footprint. One online study showed that approximately 40% of online purchases are returned, as opposed to 7% return in the case of brick-and-mortar purchases.

 And when shoppers go to the mall? They usually make a greater number of purchases as compared to their forays into online shopping. In addition, mall visits are often tied to other activities as part of their trip.

It’s confusing but one thing stands out:  
Consumers seek Price, Speed and Convenience when buying online, according to earth.org.

In the case of my eye cream, the price was about the same online and in person. 
The online delivery time took quite a bit longer, but was more convenient.

However, Neiman Marcus, a store I rarely shop at – sells the eye cream. It is located 6.3 miles from my house. Google maps gauges my drive time to be 17 minutes.

After what I witnessed as the absolute worse excess of shipping materials, guess where I’ll be buying my next jar of under eye cream?

Keep Preserving Your Bloom,

Cries Before Annihilation

I never cried the entire time I was in Poland.
I expected to, but I didn’t.  

My tears didn’t start until we landed back in the States – after checking into a sterile Marriott Hotel room sandwiched between other non-descript hotels and the JFK airport. 

I realized I was over tired. 
I realized I was sick with a sinus infection. 
But I also realized that my tears would continue for a very long time. 
And they have. 

Poland to me is like an empty nest household – the remnants of those that were born there and formed there are still visible and palpable, but the people themselves are long gone.

And the messages – ah, the messages – that the persecuted left behind are far more powerful than those doomed victims could have ever imagined. And that’s what started my flood of tears.

Here’s a smattering: 

Jurek, aged 16, Auntie Pola, aged 42, and Uncle Azek, aged 50, all died within half a year. When Jurek died, we were in utter despair. When Auntie Pola died, we despaired a bit less, and when Uncle died it just didn’t move us all that much. Quite simply, we grew used to…death.
July 6, 1941 – Renia Knoll

One is left with the tragic dilemma: are we to dole out spoonfuls to everyone, the result being that no one will survive? Or are we to give full measure to a few – with only a handful having enough to survive?
May, 1942 – Emanuel Ringelblum

We are imprisoned within double walls: a wall of brick for our bodies, and a wall of silence for our spirits.
June 25, 1942 – Chaim A. Kaplan

It was agreed that all Jews should be gathered into one place and burnt to death…all were ordered to sing and were chased into the barn. Hooligans beat them up bestially on the way…they were pushed into the barn. Then the barn was doused with kerosene and lit. 
Samul Wassersztejn

I remember scrawled on the walls: Away with the Jews, but the Jewish girls stay with us.
Ita Kupfermann

They grabbed Jews by the beards and tore the beards from their skin. 
Maria Gehl

One of the nearby streets has already been blocked. The mood is terrible. We’re expecting the worst. We’re in a hurry…Goodbye…what we’ve been unable to shout out to the world, we’ve buried in the ground.
August 3, 4pm – Dawid Graber’s last will

The comments of the survivors of those fragmented families years later still echo the angst. Here is one:

Before my father passed away, he would lead our family’s Passover Seder. There was a part in the Haggadah (the text recited at the Seder) where he was supposed to recline a bit. Every time he got to that part, he would cry. He was thinking of his father leading the Seders in Osiek, Poland when my father was growing up. In 1939, the day before the Seder, my father got information to be in Warsaw the next day to leave for the United States on the ship The Battery. It was the last boat out of Poland. He was not able to say goodbye to any of his family. And by the time The Battery arrived at Ellis Island, the town of Osiek was gone…We never knew anybody on my father’s side of the family…His parents, his sister and brother-in-law, a 2 year-old little niece and a 4 year-old nephew all perished at the hands of the Nazis. 
May 31, 2024 – Peggy (Rich) Friedman

Those of us fortunate enough not to have lost relatives in the Holocaust are forcibly impacted by its lingering effects nonetheless:

Many years ago, I took a trip to the Florida Holocaust Museum in St Petersburg, FL. I had seen much in my life related to the Holocaust, so I didn’t expect to shed more than a tear or two. I toured the museum for a while and came across a cattle car that was used to transport Jews to the concentration camps. While I don’t think it’s permitted now, I did reach out to touch it. When I did, it triggered unexpected, uncontrollable crying that seemed to last forever.
May 31, 2024 – Jack Valerio

It should be noted that Yad Vashem in Jerusalem officially acknowledged the 6500 Poles who risked their lives to save their fellow Jews and that it is estimated that the Nazis killed at least 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish citizens and POWs during World War Two. Unfortunately, I could find no quotes representing their experiences. 

In spite of it all, today, Jewish life – though drastically reduced – goes on in Poland. This picture is of a recent  Shabbat dinner at the Jewish Community Center in Warsaw.

And, in spite of it all, so does the secular life in Poland too.

Keep Preserving Your Bloom,

I Never Cried

My brother-in-law worked for Smithfield Foods and spent his entire career while there traveling back and forth to Poland – working with the livestock farmers to increase production of pigs.

It was his dream to take my husband and I, his wife (my sister) and two close couple friends back to Poland after his retirement. His focus for our foray was less on art museums, shopping and exotic night life and more on the history of the Polish Jews prior to, during and after World War 2. 

His dream materialized just a few weeks ago when we all stepped into a LOT plane at Kennedy Airport bound for Warsaw. 

According to the book Polin 1000-Year History of Polish Jews:

During the pre-World War 2 years, Poland’s Jewish population hovered around 3.3 million. It was one of the most diverse and tolerant countries in early modern Europe. Approximately 90% of Poland’s Jews were murdered as a result of the Holocaust. Three hundred thousand survived 

Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Shudrich, says the latest census reflects there are about 20,000 Jews in Poland at present, but he believes the number is  2-3 times greater than what’s reported.

We saw so much.

We saw remnants of the Warsaw Ghetto’s brick walls set against a beautiful blue sky. 

We toured the Polin Museum, which stands on the site of the destroyed Warsaw ghetto – directly facing the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes – and documents the extensive thousand-year history of the Jews of Poland. Its interior and exterior architectural is both elegant and simple – a sight to behold indeed.  

We toured the site of Auschwitz – the deadliest concentration camp. We walked under the Auschwitz Gate – reading Arbeit macht frei (Work Sets You Free). It didn’t 

Approximately 1.1 million prisoners were murdered in the five years that the camp complex was operable. Not all were Jewish. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, homosexuals and people who were disabled were also targeted. It’s not known how many children were killed there, but on a single day – October 10, 1944 – 800 children were gassed to death.

We attended a Sunday afternoon Chopin concert in the Royal Baths area in the Lazienka Park and marveled at the tranquility of the setting and the beauty of the music – in sharp  contrast to the horrors that ravaged Warsaw during World War 2.

On Shabbat, we prayed at the Nozyk Synagogue – the only Jewish house of worship in Warsaw that survived the Holocaust. Just two weeks before, on May 9, the synagogue was hit with three firebombs. No injuries. Slight damage. Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Shudrich, said to the Associated Press that the synagogue was spared “by tremendous luck or a miracle.”

We visited the excavation site of the basements of two buildings near Mila 18 in the Warsaw Ghetto where more than 5000 items related to the lives of the Jewish  residents were discovered – shoes, books, kitchen utensils, corroded tools – shedding dramatic light on the hundreds of thousands of Jews confined to an area of 1.3 square miles – with an average of 9.2 persons per room. 

Every night, I dug deeper into the book entitled The Girl In The Green Sweater. It’s a tale of an upper-class Jewish family miraculously surviving the Holocaust by hiding in the sewers below Warsaw for a year – among the stench, the swarming rats and the burrowing lice.

I drank it all in, but I never cried – until I did. And then I could hardly stop.

Next week I’ll tell you what happened to turn on the tears. 
My subject line yields a hint:
Cries Before Annihilation 

Processing Poland

My mind is still trying to process 
all that I have seen,
while my body’s fighting-off a killer sinus infection 
that is making me miserable and mean

As you read this, 
I am heading home from Poland 
to decompress, rest and renew 
and next week I’ll be writing about the experiences 
I’ve witnessed and been through 

Majestic churches and lushly green parks 
An afternoon Chopin concert 
and synagogue arks 

Pierogis, potato pancakes and apple pie 
contrasted with ghetto walls oh so high
Plus chilling pictures of innocent victims 
whose tragic ends don’t lie 

Warsaw is both wondrous and haunting 
Krakow bustling and quaint 
But underlying all of Poland 
is an unmistakable taint:
of ruined lives and smashed dreams 
of documented terror unleashed in endless streams  

But Poland is also a testament 
to humans’ vast ability 
to remember and repair 
wherever and whenever we can 
so that history doesn’t repeat itself –
once again turning man against man 

(The Jewish Community Day School in Warsaw)

Keep Preserving Your Bloom 
and I’ll be restoring mine, which right now looks like this….

A little wilted – hee hee!

On My Way…

Well, if you are reading this column at 3pm on Friday, a mere few hours ago I landed in Warsaw, Poland after flying over the ocean all night – and hopefully sleeping while doing so.

Travel, obviously, has been on my mind. This week’s column is devoted to travel tidbits both amusing and profound.

When things go awry – and I’m sure they will – I’ll keep in mind these funnies.

“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” – Susan Sontag“Work, Travel, Save, Repeat.” – Unknown“When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.” – Susan Heller “Vacation calories don’t count. Right?” – Unknown“I want someone to look at me the way I look at a travel magazine.” – Unknown“I need six months of vacation, twice a year.” – Unknown“The worst thing about being a tourist is having other tourists recognize you as a tourist.” – Russell Baker

In the same vein, I recognize I may be – at some point in my journey – jet lagged or constipated or cursing the fact that I packed all the wrong things. I will try to remember how inspiring travel can be.

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Andre Gide“Remember that happiness is a way of travel – not a destination.” – Roy M. Goodman“The most beautiful in the world is, of course, the world itself.” – Wallace Stevens“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta“A person susceptible to ‘wanderlust’ is not so much addicted to movement as committed to transformation.”  – Pico Iyer 

My mother always told me that whatever I was feeling has been felt by someone else before. Hence I treasure these quotes from people far wiser than me:

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – Augustine of Hippo“Live life with no excuses, travel with no regret.” – Oscar Wilde“Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.” – Dalai Lama“People don’t take trips, trips take people.” – John Steinbeck“It’s not what you look at that matters. It’s what you see.” – Henry David Thoreau“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.” – Mark Twain“Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown.” – Anthony Bourdain

And finally, I am so grateful that my husband Steven was able to take this trip with me:

“I would like to travel the world with you twice. Once to see the world. Twice, to see the way you see the world.” – Anonymous“It doesn’t matter where you are going. It matters who is beside you.” – Anonymous“What we find in a soul mate is not something to tame, but something wild to run with.” – Robert Brault“Go the distance. Couples who travel together are more likely to stay together and feel more connected.” – Anonymous“Here’s to all the places we went. And here’s to all the places we‘ll go. And here’s to me, whispering again and again and again and again: I love you.” – Anonymous

Keep Preserving your Bloom,

A Different Kind of Mother’s Day Message

Over the 38 years that I have been penning and publishing my weekly column, I have written a plethora of Mother’s Day messages.

Many centered on the travails of raising five feisty, highly energetic and divergent-thinking sons – who came up with more ways to hide beer in the back yard bushes than I would have ever thought possible.

Many columns centered on poking good-humored fun at my own mother. When my sister’s and my housekeeping standards didn’t measure up to hers, my mom would invariably comment: I don’t know how YOU PEOPLE live like this! (We managed.)

Or I’d glorify the feats of moms who were able to breast feed, prepare healthy, delicious dinners and run multi-national corporations all at the same time. (None of which I ever came close to achieving)

It’s just two days away from Mother’s Day 2024 and I am in a more pensive mood. 

Maybe it’s got to do with the rampant anti-Semitism rearing its ugly head worldwide. Maybe it’s got to do with my up binge watching into the wee hours of the night “We Were the Lucky Ones” now streaming on Hulu – one Polish family’s story of separation and survival during the Holocaust.

And no maybes – FOR SURE – it’s got something to do with  my upcoming trip to Poland in less than one week. 

I’m not figuring out which shoes are most comfortable to pack or which novel I’ll bring on board to read during the flight. I’m not focused on Warsaw’s Galar Cruise on the Vistula and Krakow’s Wawel Castle. I’m obsessing over Poland’s tragic history of annihilating my people – not its highlights, its beauty and its wonders.   

So here I sit on my lovely second story, covered porch – being pleasantly cooled by my ceiling fan, sipping a freshly brewed hot cup of coffee while overlooking the lushness of my own back yard. I am seemingly secure, safe and insulated from the ugliness of the chaotic world.

But am I secure, safe and insulated? 
Are my children secure, safe and insulated? 
Are my grandchildren secure, safe and insulated?

I think not.

What can we do about the chaos? The hate and bigotry?
The killing and the violence?

We start:

By treating those we employ and interact with in a kind mannerBy listening and discoursing with an open mind in a dignified way By staying informed and awareBy supporting individuals running for office who exemplify the ideals we hold closeBy contributing our time and resources to causes which enhance our fellow human beings’ safety and securityBy talking to our children and grandchildren about their ancestors’ challenges, triumphs, values and principles  By taking care of ourselves so that we can take care of others By recognizing that G-d gave women the unique ability to create a life from a group of cells. Surely we can use our energies and our resources to ensure that we do all that we can to enhance and preserve both the lives we have created and all the lives of those peace seeking humans who inhabit this earth with us.

And we can celebrate the good times – starting with Mother’s Day.

Keep Preserving Your Bloom, 

G-d bless Sheryl Sandburg

In the morning, I found out I needed about $4500 worth of dental work. That knocked out my expansive plans for new shrubs and plantings adjacent to my back yard screened porch. I blinked away my hot tears. 

Shortly thereafter, I spent approximately 68 minutes surfing the Internet trying to add my TSA number to my airline’s boarding pass. I was not successful and I knew my blood pressure was refrlecting my extreme aggravation.

Later on, while packing for a weekend jaunt to Virginia, I agonized over what looked best with my brand new white flair pants: my black strapless top or my simple black and white stripe t shirt. I vacillated for what seemed like hours til I settled on the striped top. Did I make the right decision?

I ate too much when I went out to dinner that night and topped it off by pigging-out on three sugar cookies laced with M and M’s I found while foraging in my freezer when I returned home 

Irritable and annoyed with myself, I grabbed the remote and tuned into NewsNation with host Chris Cuomo  to distract myself from the “aggravations” of my day.

Cuomo was interviewing Sheryl Sandburg about the posting of a 36 minute video on YouTube titled “Screams Before Silence.” American businesswoman Sandberg went to Israel to explore the sexual violence by Hamas during the Hamas-led attack on Israel. She also investigated events at the massacre at the Nova Festival and abductions to the Gaza Strip.

“Screams Before Silence” is her newly released documentary – filled with chilling interviews detailing the barbarism of October 7th.

Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAr9oGSXgak

Getting ready for bed minutes later,
blessings for Sherry Sandburg’s courage and chutzpah ran through my mind. Over and over again I marveled at her valiant and successful efforts to show the world up close, vivid proof of Hamas’ savage and pre-meditated attack on innocent civilians.

After fully recognizing how inconsequential my petty irritations were, I cried myself to sleep.

Helpful Hints to Remember Stuff

I forget my granddaughter’s birthday – not because I didn’t write it down – but because I forgot to look at my list of “Special Days.”

I’m at the grocery store and can’t remember if I have an in unopened bottle of French Vanilla Coffee mate at home so I buy more.

Word recall? Routinely a word is on the tip of my tongue – and that’s where it stays – until about 15 hours later when it miraculously pops into my head. 

I read the book From Strength to Strength by Arthur Brooks – underlining his key and very relevant points of view. Then I write my weekly newsletter based on his observations. Three weeks later a friend asks me, “Iris, what most impressed you about his book?”
And I can’t remember a thing.

Clearly I am in dire need of helpful hints to remember stuff.  

A buddy suggests using acronyms. 
“When I drive on the boulevard near my house,” she tells me, “there is a lot to be aware of so I keep thinking: PBS. PBS. PBS. (Pedestrians, Bikers, Speed).” (Watch out for pedestrians, bikers and going over the speed limit she explains.)

Another friend, a talented poet, puts her literary skills to work. “I think in rhymes,” she relates:
Keys, glasses, sunscreen, phone
Keys, glasses, sunscreen, phone
Don’t ever leave any of these
At home!

Another friend, an innovative interior designer, with an expert eye for beautiful objects, keeps it practical. “I don’t need rhymes,” she airily declares. “I have a finely rendered, high quality ceramic bowl on a stunning black credenza near my front door. Guess what I keep in it? My keys, glasses, sunscreen and phone.” 

The Jewish holiday of Passover arrives. 
My husband and I fly to Connecticut for the Seder with our extended family, including four of our five sons and their families. My daughter-in-law Jenny graciously hosts. 

It’s a rare occurrence to have all of our eight grandkids together in one place. They range in age from 20 months to 17 years so too their range of activities is broad. And it’s a huge challenge to assemble them for a family photo. I usually end up utilizing most of my time trying to finagle how to get all of them to stop what they are doing, assemble in one place, sit still for one minute and take a picture. 

This year I released myself from that mode of behavior. 

I decided to let the picture go. The frame will remain blank.

I decide instead to simply enjoy watching my grandchildren interact with each other and various other family members throughout the evening.

The picture is not on my phone, to be printed out days later and framed. The picture is in my head. And with my new skills of keeping mentally sharp to remember stuff, that’s where it will stay.

It’s in a silo in my mind I named QFT (Quality Family Time).

It’s a heart expanding rhyme:
The world may be chaotic
But we’re together tonight
Sharing age old rituals
Spreading cheer and light

And I keep it practical. I stash away my phone, clear my mind of distractions, bounce the little ones on my knees and strike-up meaningful conversations with the older ones. 

I simply stay present in the moment – and days later – due to my laser focusing on the here and now, I have little difficulty remembering all that good stuff I experienced at the Seder – even without the picture. 

Keep Preserving Your Bloom,

Who Ya Going to Turn To?

Throughout my growing up years,
when I wanted to feel good
and when I needed reassurance that everything would be okay,
I went to my mother.
But when I wanted the truth – the unvarnished truth – I turned to my friends.

We need our friends. 

I guess that’s why over 200 women of all ages and at all stages attended The Art of Female Friendship event on April 12th.

Here are some key take-aways from my speech about making a new friend, keeping the ones you have and 
overcoming conversational hurdles. 

HOT TAKE AWAY #1: Don’t overshare!
If we thought about it, how many of us would admit that over the course of our lives we may have spent a little too much time saying to ourselves, “I should have shut up ten minutes ago”?  
It happens, especially when we’re anxious or eager to take a relationship to the next level by attempting to build depth and a sense of emotional intimacy. But it’s not necessarily a good idea to do that before the friendship is really ready…Maybe it’s a bit too soon to share your lifelong battle with yeast infections, your complicated history with your ex or how you lost your virginity.
At the same time, no one wants to be friends with a carefully curated version of yourself – as the old saying goes: “I only have met four perfect people in my life and I didn’t like any of them.”

HOT TAKEAWAY #2: Listen. 
Active listening is not so easy.  It means paying close attention to what the other person is saying and listening so you can respond with authentic and open-ended questions. Expressing curiosity is a great social skill – opening up a world of knowledge and valuable insights you could otherwise miss. If you’re just focused on what you’re going to say next, you’ll end up missing most of what your new pal is saying.

HOT TAKE AWAY #3: Be cautious when using humor.
Keep in mind that one woman’s idea of humor is another’s woman’s idea of a broken friendship. So tread lightly.

For instance, what do you think of sharing this with a friend? “A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.”

Pretty clever observation right?

Now what do you think of this one?
“Friends are like condoms. They protect us when things get hard.”

Some of my buddies would think that comparison is hysterical. Others? Others would say, “Really, Iris, need you be so crude?”

HOT TAKE AWAY #4: FIND COMMONALITY 
THINK ABOUT WHO YOU FEEL MOST COMFORTABLE WITH. 
 I have found an immediate and unmistakable bond with one particular group of people: 
·     Now that I am living in Tampa, I am instantly attracted to People from Ohio, particularly my hometown of Cincinnati and as a bonus – those people who are Cincinnati Reds fans – this is not a large number, however.

HOT TAKE AWAY #5: Embrace relational diversity and generational diversity.
One bestie may be great but having various women you can go to for different things – leaning into their unique offerings – is worth considering and actually leads to greater happiness. You’ve got a pickle ball friend, a friend you exchange book ideas with, entrepreneurial friends, elder friends, youngish friends, and creative friends.  

HOT TAKE AWAY #6: Two good CONVERSATION JUMP-STARTERS: 
1.  ROSE, THORN, BUD. 
ROSE – What’s good in your life?
THORN – What’s challenging in your life?
BUD – What are you looking forward to?

2.   WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF?

If you missed the first event, don’t despair – the next one is coming up soon.

Please register at: www.JewishTampa.com/Bloom

Until then, Keep Preserving Your Bloom,

A Behind the Scenes Look at an Event

Monday, April 8
I wake up in a cold sweat.

Four days until my very first event 
in The Art of Female Friendship series.

It seems like there are still loose ends to be tied up:
     The agony of seating 180. (Whoops: by mid-afternoon there are now 200 who have registered.)
     The stumbling I’m still experiencing in three different parts of my 40-minute featured presentation speech.
     The inability to remember if I told the venue staff that I needed a podium?  And a lapel mic?

Breathe, Iris, Breathe.


Tuesday, April 9
In spite of the tumult, I take sacred time for a mani and pedi.

Drum roll: After 34 years of wearing Big Apple Red polish, I brazenly switch to Deep Purple Passion in keeping with my Preserve Your Bloom garden theme. 

Wednesday, April 10
The indecision over what I’m ultimately going to wear continues – fueled by the reality of the northern direction the scale has been climbing in spite of my efforts to lose “the big five pounds” before “show time.”

I waver in my wardrobe choice:
Subdued professional?
Boho funky female?
Aging drama queen?
Do I dare expose my 76 year-old upper arms?
Do I step-up the tanning lotion routine to cover up the broken capillaries hugging my knees if I decide on a dress that barely covers them?
Do I just chuck the whole wardrobe dilemma and shimmy into a flowy black dress and totally blend into the black curtain which will be behind me?

Eek!

Thursday, April 11
I begin assembling everything on my dining room table that needs to go to the venue.



I panic. I can’t find one of my major props. (I find it.)

I panic. I forgot to decorate one of the signs I’m using in my presentation. (I decorate it.)

I panic. The number of people we had to turn away due to reaching  room capacity has grown every day. (Will these ladies ever forgive me?)

I panic. At 8:14 pm, I actually realize that I have forgotten to write my weekly newsletter. I’ve been writing my weekly newsletter for almost 40 years and I have never FORGOTTEN up until now.  (I sit down to write it.)

Friday, April 12
If you are reading this, my event is over.
My car is filled to capacity with table decorations we will re-purpose and use again.
The PYB Step and Repeat backdrop that so many snapped pictures in front of is now tucked away in its carrying case.
The plastic bins that housed my hand-knitted pouches I gave to each woman attending are now empty and stacked in my front hall.
And the pile of loose papers detailing friendship issues that will be addressed at our next event on August 28 are still in the venting vessel where they were placed earlier. 

Picture me in my bedroom:
The wooden shutters are closed to block out the bright afternoon sun.
The boho outfit I decided to wear is now crumpled on the chintz covered chair in my bedroom.
My too-tight shoes are piled on top of each other in the corner where I haphazardly flung them.
My old flannel nightgown is wrapped around my body. 
My carefully applied mascara is smudging my white pillowcase.
My phone is on silence.
And I am fast asleep.

Keep Preserving Your Bloom,