Last week I got older. I had my 60th birthday and celebrated with friends. What is really incredible is, as usual, my friends. I have met with this same group of women for over 19 years. We met and started fund-raising at our kids preschool. One day we realized that what we really liked to do was be with each other so we started two groups: Bunko and Bookclub. We would meet once each month for each group.
We still meet. Bunko has turned into TOTT (time on the town) but Bookclub remains the same. And each December we all meet, as a combined group (not everyone is in both) and celebrate Christmas with a gift exchange, which, of course involves stealing! I am still the champ, though, for stealing back my own gift! But that's another story.
This year we met again, on the day after my birthday. I didn't know we would celebrate it, as it had already passed, but I got songs and a delicious cake home make by Carole. But the best gift was that they all contributed to Second Harvest of Santa Cruz and San Jose, in my name, and raised over $500 dollars! I am humbled. I am over-joyed. I am so grateful, as I really do not need anything, and there are so many here that do need the basics, like food on the table.
These women amaze me. Their generosity has provided over 2,800 meals! Unbelievable! Awesome! WOW!
Second Harvest is a group that I give to because I believe in their message. There is no religion attached to it. Corporate Honchos and field workers work side-by-side to distribute food. The community gathers and distributes food. And they do it humbly.
Last year I collected food at my shop, but without my shop I wondered how I could make up that difference...and my girlfriends did it!!!
My girlfriends: We've shared wonderful times; We've shared loses, cancer, chemo, children growing and leaving for college. No marriages yet, but that will be coming. We've laughed and sang together more than most people. I think that we truly love being together. We've traveled. We've just stayed put. We've read a huge amount of fabulous books, and a couple of stupid ones, who knew. But we've shared it with one another.
And now they have shared with me and my community this wonderful, generous gift.
Thank you Gretchen, Carole, Tracie, Lynn, Deb, Karen, Debbie, Alison, Carol Ann, Gail, Shari, Kim, Nora, Dana. You are the very, very best that anyone could ask for in friends. I look forward to many more years of our being together.
Cheeriest of Holidays to all of you. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year.
Let's make 2010 better than 2009.
Peace.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
OMG I'm OLD
How did this happen? Where was I? What have I been doing? Where have I been?
I now have an AARP card! I get discounts at the movie theater. Sometimes I'm asked if I'm old enough for the Senior Discount at the craft store. Wow! I really do not understand how my 27 year old brain is trapped in this now 60 year old body!
I look around at my home. It doesn't look like the surroundings of someone that old. It is pretty much the same as it was in college except the "stuff" is better quality. There are still art projects in various stages. There are still prints and quilts upon the walls. The furniture is much better, much more comfortable, upgraded, but still kind of the same.
Is that what happens? We just upgrade? And then what???
What is the next step, the next adventure, the next problem and solution? I don't have a "bucket list", at least not yet. Guess that is on it's way, too. I have a dear friend, Alison, who made a list on her 50th birthday (which was just this year!!!!!) with 50 things she wants to do during the year. Knowing Ali, she will achieve them. But making a list with 60 items/things/places to see in one year? That scares the crap out of me. I don't think there is enough time, so I've been thinking of maybe a list of 30 things, done twice...but that freaks me out too. So maybe 6 things done ten times?!? That might work.
Maybe I am getting old. Oh no. But isn't 50 the new 30? So that makes 60 the new 40?!? Oh no. I was just having my kids then. As much as I LOVE my kids, I really do not want to go through young mother-hood again, especially at my age!
Yes, it comes back to age. Are we really only as old as we feel? If so, some days I am very young, and others, like when a storm is moving into town and my bones are aching, I feel as old as the hills. But those are times to sit down, reflect, sip some tea and rejoice that, despite it all, you are still going, still creating, still loving and being in love...
So, as I reflect, it is OK to be getting older. I still look ok, even though there is much more of me than there use to be. And I think I'm still fun to be with. And I do keep learning new things. Just ask me about the new pattern in the Quilting Arts Gifts magazine...
So, this too will pass, and it will be ok. In fact I think it will be pretty damn good. I'm not ready to be old. Don't think I ever will be. I will just keep on learning, loving, being, trying, going, until I understand it all. Maybe then I'll be OLD.
Peace
I now have an AARP card! I get discounts at the movie theater. Sometimes I'm asked if I'm old enough for the Senior Discount at the craft store. Wow! I really do not understand how my 27 year old brain is trapped in this now 60 year old body!
I look around at my home. It doesn't look like the surroundings of someone that old. It is pretty much the same as it was in college except the "stuff" is better quality. There are still art projects in various stages. There are still prints and quilts upon the walls. The furniture is much better, much more comfortable, upgraded, but still kind of the same.
Is that what happens? We just upgrade? And then what???
What is the next step, the next adventure, the next problem and solution? I don't have a "bucket list", at least not yet. Guess that is on it's way, too. I have a dear friend, Alison, who made a list on her 50th birthday (which was just this year!!!!!) with 50 things she wants to do during the year. Knowing Ali, she will achieve them. But making a list with 60 items/things/places to see in one year? That scares the crap out of me. I don't think there is enough time, so I've been thinking of maybe a list of 30 things, done twice...but that freaks me out too. So maybe 6 things done ten times?!? That might work.
Maybe I am getting old. Oh no. But isn't 50 the new 30? So that makes 60 the new 40?!? Oh no. I was just having my kids then. As much as I LOVE my kids, I really do not want to go through young mother-hood again, especially at my age!
Yes, it comes back to age. Are we really only as old as we feel? If so, some days I am very young, and others, like when a storm is moving into town and my bones are aching, I feel as old as the hills. But those are times to sit down, reflect, sip some tea and rejoice that, despite it all, you are still going, still creating, still loving and being in love...
So, as I reflect, it is OK to be getting older. I still look ok, even though there is much more of me than there use to be. And I think I'm still fun to be with. And I do keep learning new things. Just ask me about the new pattern in the Quilting Arts Gifts magazine...
So, this too will pass, and it will be ok. In fact I think it will be pretty damn good. I'm not ready to be old. Don't think I ever will be. I will just keep on learning, loving, being, trying, going, until I understand it all. Maybe then I'll be OLD.
Peace
AARP....What the@?!K!
I did it. Last week. Fully aware of what I was doing. And being proud of it. What, you ask, did I do? I JOINED AARP! Good God. I can't believe I did it. I've always ignored their requests stating " I will never be old enough to join!!!" Into to trash went all the mailers. Who cares about some organization for old people. I'll never be THAT old.
No, I didn't succumb to my adding years each and every year. What happened is that AARP makes so much sense. They are organized. They fight for rights that could be taken away. And, most importantly to me right now, they support Universal Health Care. That's what did it for me!!!
What kind of a country are we? We have most of the wealth, well, at least we use to be wealthy. We are forward thinking. We say we are inclusive, and many of us are. We stand up for the rights of others. We work to help the down-trodden throughout the world. But offer the option of affordable health care to each citizen. Never. Not here. Not yet.
We must have some type of universal coverage which is affordable and available to all of us. I have spent too much time trying to get health care in the past. And it was never affordable health care. It was extremely expensive. And didn't cover much. All because my husband and I are self-employed. We work for ourselves, not some big corporation. We believe in the individual being able to provide an independent livelihood. And maybe, just maybe, it is better for us to be our own bosses rather than working for someone else.
We have coverage right now, but only because my husband is a college professor. When that ends, then what?
No, I didn't succumb to my adding years each and every year. What happened is that AARP makes so much sense. They are organized. They fight for rights that could be taken away. And, most importantly to me right now, they support Universal Health Care. That's what did it for me!!!
What kind of a country are we? We have most of the wealth, well, at least we use to be wealthy. We are forward thinking. We say we are inclusive, and many of us are. We stand up for the rights of others. We work to help the down-trodden throughout the world. But offer the option of affordable health care to each citizen. Never. Not here. Not yet.
We must have some type of universal coverage which is affordable and available to all of us. I have spent too much time trying to get health care in the past. And it was never affordable health care. It was extremely expensive. And didn't cover much. All because my husband and I are self-employed. We work for ourselves, not some big corporation. We believe in the individual being able to provide an independent livelihood. And maybe, just maybe, it is better for us to be our own bosses rather than working for someone else.
We have coverage right now, but only because my husband is a college professor. When that ends, then what?
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