I have recklessly devoured salted watermelon seeds, a packet of crackers eaten with brie cheese from France given to me by my cousin, who works there, when he was cleaning their fridge here getting ready to leave. I am drinking (while also thawing) a bottle of buko juice because that’s healthy. I have been playing rounds of Free Cell because I enjoy it. That’s what I’ve been doing all day – enjoying my life, adding some kind of magic. That’s what all women should do. Especially women of a special age like me, winding down my 60s to eventually enter my 70s if I live that long. Just find your own magic and work it into your present life.
Yesterday I went to my jewelry class loaded with new stones I bought at Carolina’s in Glorietta 4. I have been there a few times because it’s new and I love discovering new places. I bought a lot of green plastic beads because green is the color of the year. So at my jewelry class I made myself a lovely green necklace. It made me sigh. Where will I wear it now? I don’t even go out on dates. No one asks me out on a date anymore.
So I wore it today. Olive green pants, green blouse that I received as a gift two years ago, then my lovely green necklace that looked very expensive but was not. Then I sat at my computer and visited the Simple Abundance website. Yes, thanks to one of my readers who read last week’s column and texted me about the website I found it. It’s easy to find. Go to Google then go to SimpleAbundance.com.
It opens with an attractive drawing of a lady in black with bright colored prints. Becoming Your Own Courtesan. What is a courtesan? In France she was usually a mistress whose lifestyle was most elegant because her lover did not begrudge her expenses, unlike many husbands, who make their wives account for every single cent spent.
Then Sarah Ban Breathnach goes on to write about the month of February and how women feel. “…women often confuse love and romance. God knows I did. While both are frequently in each other’s company, they’re not the same. Think of love as an emotion. Romance is its evocative expression. Romance reveals the depth and breath of a lover’s feelings in a particular way. Romance is the flourish, embellishment, poetic gesture. Love can be conveyed in an email, but when a woman receives a handwritten letter, she’s being romanced. The time it took, the glimpse of her name in his handwriting – these are the things that make her heart beat faster.â€
Then she goes on and you can click on the upper right hand and listen to her speak or to Oprah Winfrey talk on a similar subject. Apparently you can even belong to a Simple Abundance club, something I’m thinking of joining just to follow her explorations. She is decidedly creative, this Sarah Ban Breathnach. It is her tone that makes me wake up each morning looking cheerfully at the rest of my day, getting dressed for it, sometimes to an extreme, but joyful anyway. After all, we all have only one life. Why don’t we live every day cheerfully for ourselves? We were not put on this earth to please other people all the time. When we hit 60, we should turn around and tell all the people who depend on us for something or other – it’s my turn now. All these years I have been working to fund your life and your whims. From now on I am going to have fun. I am entitled.
What is fun anyway? It’s not going out and having a wild night on the town. It’s going out to putter and plant in the garden, if you enjoy gardening. It’s sitting down and trying to put together a big jigsaw puzzle that drives you mad. It’s being in the kitchen baking buttery butterfly cookies for your own enjoyment. It’s doing what you like to do for no other reason except you enjoy it.
Do you want to watch a George Clooney look-alike speak? Christian Drapeau, the scientist who makes the natural pills StemEnhance, is coming here again on Monday, March 11. He will speak about optimum health and wellness and answer all your questions. Plus, he is so handsome.
Am I in love with him? No, he as old as my oldest daughter. But I enjoy listening to handsome men speak. He will be speaking at the Hampton Room of the Astoria Plaza Hotel, 151 Escriva Drive, Ortigas Center, Pasig City. If you want reservations, call either 817-1811 or 817-0991. Tickets are only P150 each.
Call now and add more magic to your life. I will.
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