Proper perspective

With the solemnity of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, behind us, we are gearing up for the more festive holiday of Sukkot. We will be in Sharon for the entire week. Since we have an apartment (rather than a private home) here, we are unable to build a Sukkah. But our children and grandchildren live a short walk away, so we are planning many meals with them and have been invited to the homes of other friends for the remaining meals. Barry and I are doing quite a bit of the cooking. I got started today with large pots of two different soups. Tomorrow the plan is chili (vegetarian, of course). Then some stuffed shells. “Festive holiday” clearly translates into “favorite foods.”

Having said that, I had a brain freeze this morning that threatened to completely derail my upbeat mood. Since we will be here in Sharon for over two weeks, I decided to bring along the checkbook, just in case something arose requiring us to write a check (being that we are still living in the stone ages and have not moved to a fully paperless existence). But this morning I could not find it. Barry did not know where I had put it, so I started tearing things apart. One of the first places I looked was a large manila envelope full of papers sitting on the computer desk next to my laptop. I remembered this envelope because it has some information related to my long term disability that will require follow-up over the next week or so, so I had made a copy of the material to bring along with me to Sharon, and put pop-up reminders on my Google calendar. But I did not see the checkbook in that envelope. Well, not until I had gone through quite a few other places, with increasing anxiety, none of which were ringing any bells, and again picked up that envelope. And there it was! How did I miss it the first time? I was relieved but the frustration made it difficult to rejoice.

Many of you 60+ folks will probably react the way Barry did: this is what happens as we get older. I understand that, but for me both the starting point and the trajectory were not routine. I used to be a person who would meet someone, ask for their phone number, and be able to remember it without writing it down. Then, 18 months ago, almost suddenly, that skill simply vanished. You may be wondering why I have seemingly not yet adjusted to it, but in the same way that I still think of myself as overweight, I still think of myself as a person who easily remembers minute details. All those Lumosity games have certainly helped improve my short-term memory. But I am still working on finding ways to alleviate the frustration of not being able to rely on it.

Thanks for letting me vent here! And if I have already written on this topic, thanks for understanding.

Love,

Rebecca