Giving these, aging ladies, a place, an opportunity, to feel younger, during the holiday seasons, translated…
The month before the year’s over, I’d suddenly gained a thought, to set up a present exchange at the morning yoga class I just started attending. The yoga studio that’s located on the second floor of the marketplace, in the noises of Grandma Pearl made, I’d, made myself heard, and suddenly, everybody fell, silent, I’d worried, that my wayward thought may cause me to get laughed out of the studios. The elderly woman on my right first asked me how this “game” is played, I’d explained a bit, “We can fight over the presents?” got everybody’s attention, and all twenty members of the class all agreed, and, the date was set on the last yoga session before the holidays, and the prize was $100N.T.s.
something like…
And on the day, nobody showed up late for class because of shopping for groceries, those shopping carts these ladies usually hauled to the studios, unseen; those classmates who usually, stalled, became extremely, efficient, gotten warmed up, and, followed the orders of the instructor, completed all of their, moves, nobody complained of how they couldn’t, stretch themselves farther enough.
After the class, we’d circled around the instructor, with the miniature Christmas tree in the center, and the gifts we brought. I’d used my hands and feet, as I, demonstrated how to, “steal” the presents from each other, the group of elderly ladies started, laughing like crazy. And, everybody took her turn, to draw the gifts, open the presents, and, showing them off, the screams, the hollers came. Some placed a tiny little trinket inside a huge gift box, some hid the gift certificates of the malls inside a roll of toilet paper. In the laughter, the gifts big and small got, passed from one person’s hands to the next, with the running around. This party which I thought would end before lunch time, continued for long, until the instructor reminded us all, that it’s time, for us all, to go get our groceries shopped, and head home to cook.
This was the very first early morning party I’d ever gone to in life, it’s also, a Christmas party with the highest average age of the members. No extravagant ballrooms, no getting dressed up to the nines, no delicate foods prepared, but it was, the most, unforgettable. That day, the youthful souls that were all, originally, covered up by the wrinkles, lost all of their images and bondages, in a more than ordinary morning, showed their, most, comfortable, selves.
And so, this group of elderly ladies are in need, of unwinding, seeing how “wild” they got at the party, this showed, how much they’d carried in their, daily lives that may be, weighing them down, and, this idea of the Christmas gift exchange came right on time, for them all, to unwind…
Life, the Obstacle Course 