Let's Make A Deal With Life

I get an email bulletin every week from a super market here called Fresh Market. The bulletin is called Fresh Ideas. I thought that I do not need any food ideas, but Perhaps I could use the wording that says Fresh Ideas. Here are a few thoughts and ideas. “I will never apologize for being me; you should apologize for asking me to be anything else.” Then there is “Today I will let my burdens go. I am going to face this day and have faith that everything will get better.” Many times, we awaken in the morning and we dread the day that is before us. Perhaps, we have a dental appointment. Who likes going to the dentist? Perhaps as ladies we have a gyn appointment. Who in their right mind would care for it? We always say that a man must have designed the table and stirrups we have to be on, because no female would have made it that way. Maybe we do not dread the day. Perhaps we are going to lunch with a family member or perhaps we will eat lunch with our grandchildren because school is out for spring break. Perhaps, we will go shopping and buy a new spring or summer outfit that makes us feel sexy, slim and young. Perhaps we are not feeling like being slim and we are going to order a big and fattening lunch and skip the shopping for the new slim outfit. There are all kinds of days. I have a friend in Florida who always signs her email notes to me that “life is good.” She is a senior who looks lovely, loves to dance, loves her grandchildren and she is making the most out of her seventy-five years of senior-dom. I like to hear from her with this line at the end of the note. She truly believes in the life is good attitude. She is divorced, but she is happy as to what she is accomplishing doing some volunteer work, some real work she gets paid for and her dancing. Her name is Betty Ponder Wilson and I love hearing from her via the email and I am happy she is content and loving life. She has a delightful smile and her love of life being good shows up in her photos. She also is a model and she has been doing this since she was fourteen. Her latest modeling job was three weeks ago. She is quite an accomplished senior, what I call my ‘golden seniors.’ I use to write for seventeen years for a magazine called Amateur Dancers. Since she and I and all the readers were amateur dancers which meant we were not professional teachers or dancers. We danced for the love of, and many of us competed with our pro teachers in competitions and the other group were social dancers. Social dancers are people who learn to dance well and then they go out to dances and do their ‘thing.’ They look professional by the excellent way they dance and others who do not dance look at them dancing and think WOW, those folks can really dance, they must be pros which is a very nice compliment when you hear it. When the magazine ceased to be published and they changed their name and were not mainly for us amateurs, I discontinued writing for them after that long span. One night she called me up and we talked for the first time in about ten years since we started to email when she read my articles in it. So I heard her voice for the first time and she heard mine and we had been email friends for almost a decade. So a voice was put to the words and to the photos we had exchanged over the years and it was a nice experience. She thought I might be upset over the magazine closing and so she was so kind to call me. I never forgot that call. I was not upset over the magazine closing and being what it had been. I started to write for other dance spots such as More magazine, Fred Astaire Dance Studios and online for Rene Zgraggren and his website in Alabama. They say when one door closes, another opens up. Monty Hall had a television show decades ago where you could choose a prize from Door Number One, Door Number Two or Door Number Three and they have now revived it with Wayne Brady as the host. The audience dresses up in silly costumes and wigs and they try to be chosen to be a participant in the show and to win lots of money. They have to choose one of the doors and many times they win big prizes and other times they win what is called a Zonk which means it is nothing. They have to think which door will have the most for them to “Let’s Make A Deal.” Sometimes the deals are very tempting but they can lose the money or prizes they have attained already. Many choose to keep the money they have won and not take a chance on losing it because they want the door prizes. I myself would choose to keep the money and not take a chance on a Zonk which is nothing or a silly goofy prize worth zero. You would be amazed how many people take a chance and sometimes they do win the bigger prize. “I will never apologize for being me; you should apologize for asking me to be anything else.” Then there is “Today I will let my burdens go. I am going to face this day and have faith that everything will get better.” Tomorrow I will try Door Number two and use the saying that I am going to face this day, Friday, and have faith that everything will get better. I will also use door number one and never apologize for being me, because I think I am a pretty fine me. As my dear friend Betty Wilson of Florida says “Life is good” and let us all try to have a good life. There is a saying, Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, It's about learning to dance in the rain. Let us make a deal to be happy and healthy and most of all to have faith. elita sohmer clayman