Bernadette’s Intro

My dear friend and fellow Prime Time for Women member, Jenny Tobery, strives to say “yes” to every adventure, escapade and exploit that comes her way, which truly inspires me. But that wasn’t always the case.  When I first met Jenny 5 years ago, she rarely said “yes” to anything.

Recently she sent me a hilarious text about her most recent “yes”, which landed her in a water yoga class with her daughter, Jamey, and about 25 other women.  As I was writing this month’s PTFW Newsletter, I came upon a quote by Blue, a Substack author, that perfectly captured Jenny’s story. Blue wrote,

“The Bravest Thing I Ever Did

Was not dramatic.

No applause. No audience.

I just stopped pretending the life I had was the life I wanted.

And started building the one I did want.”

That is exactly what Jenny did!  She was so brave then and continues to be brave now.  After reading Blue’s words, I picked up the phone and called Jenny and asked her to share her story…and of course, I knew she would say “yes”!

Jenny’s Story

Comedian Tom Papa once joked you shouldn’t add anything to your bucket list after 70—if you haven’t done it by then, you’re not going to. Since I’m closer to 80 than 70, I’m especially glad I didn’t listen to him!

A few years ago, I declared the year of “YES” —as in, yes, I’ll try it. It led to great experiences, new friendships, plenty of laughs, and a few minor disappointments.  I tackled questionable exercise classes, attempted yoga poses my body rejected, and even tried aerial yoga. Goat yoga, however, is a hard no after a naughty goat left “souvenirs” on my brightly colored mat.

I meditated in a salt cave, floated in a thousand pounds of Epsom salt, and joined a golf league having never played. Life opened up—and got a lot more fun—so I kept saying yes. I started writing again after a long hiatus, joined a book club I love, and for my birthday insisted on celebrating at a zipline park (only because skydiving was vetoed due to my recent knee replacement surgery.)

Lately, I’ve been saying “yes” to water exercise at the YMCA with my daughter. She texts me times; I show up without asking questions. One day, she casually mentioned it was pool yoga. Yikes…I can barely manage yoga on land.

The instructor’s voice was so soothing it could easily lull my sweet great granddaughter to sleep in a wink. After slipping through poses, the 25 participants ended in Savasana, floating on noodles. My daughter said we looked like the folks in Cocoon. I replied, “I can only imagine what happens in the pole class!”