I looked back in my blog to what I was feeling a year ago. It was the fall of 2020 and I was anxious to say the least. We had decided to put our house of 28 years on the market and leave California for Arizona. My kids were in the Bay Area and furious with us. My daughter was unemployed, having been laid off from her job due to COVID. My son was working remotely. My husband was working remotely from our master bedroom. There was a lot of emotions going on although not much else.
Here’s what I wrote last October:
I ran across a poem in an email from a club I belong to. It hit a nerve with how I’m feeling lately. I’m not able to sleep through the night. I’m worried for my children’s health and lives. It’s been a strange year to say the least for everyone around the world. I can’t wait for 2020 to be a distant memory.
It may seem odd to belong to a “woman’s club.” It sounds downright archaic. But it’s an interesting group of about 150 women. We are mostly empty nesters and range in age from mid 40s to early 100’s. We have a clubhouse that we maintain and rent out to various people and organizations for things like weddings to theater. The main purpose of our club is to raise funds for scholarships from graduating high school seniors. We give them four-year scholarships for college.
The club website states our purpose:
Intellectual Improvement – Social Enjoyment – Helpfulness in the Community
Serving the Community since 1938
It’s a great club because you aren’t expected to do anything. Or, you can be as involved as you wish and head a committee or project. I know many of the women from my years as a mom of school-aged children. When I joined the club, I saw many familiar faces of women who were always the ones active and involved in their children’s activities and schools. They are the ones to count on to get things done.
Then there are the older women, generations older than me. I value their perspectives and interesting histories. I don’t think I’d have built friendships with these women unless they lived next door. But thanks to our club, we all sit together for lunch or tea, and learn from guest speakers about our town’s history or other topics. I’m sorry we won’t be meeting this year in person, but I look forward to the day when 2020 and the global pandemic is behind us.
Here’s the poem I received today from the Palm Springs Woman’s Club:
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
And I wake in the night at the least sound
In fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
Rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
Who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
Waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Wendell Berry
I think this year the club will begin meeting in person. I got an invitation to their opening party. But, of course, I’m not there. Maybe I’ll pop in someday and say hi to my old friends.
Do you belong to any groups or clubs? Are they meeting in person this year? Did they meet at all in 2020?
Not sure I can belong to a club that has any kind of membership, because that involves people. Inevitably the majority of those people are stupider than a stripper’s pole, and I do not do well around stupid. I prefer to single out my friends based on simple qualifiers, starting with “common sense” and “pragmatism”. Alas, I am having a hard time finding anybody that meets those simple qualifications.
You are discerning. That’s a good trait.
I am in a book club that has met twice in person this year but now seems to be disbanding after 10 years together
That is too bad. Our neighborhood book club and other clubs haven’t met in person because of COVID-19.
There are only 5 of us so once we were all vaccinated we met again. All it took, though, was one month of it being canceled for people to apparently be done with it
Tea society has met once in person this year and the expectation is that our next meeting will also be in person. My building book club resumed meeting in person in May, my tea book club also resumed in person about the same time.
That’s great! We have five neighborhood clubs but they haven’t met at all since we moved here. They were supposed to start this month but postponed until 2022.
Ugh
It’s amazing how much my life has in common with yours- I’m just a year later. Gearing up for a move from CA to AZ, worried about my adult kids who are struggling and feeling abandoned by us. I’m thankful God put you in my sights because you lend hope that it will all work out! It’s amazing how much can take place in a year’s time!
I am so happy we made the move although it was hard. My daughter still complains that she wants to go “home.” Where in AZ are you moving to?
We’re moving to Flagstaff. Do you think your daughter (or you?) will eventually move back?
We went to Flagstaff for our anniversary in July. It was wonderful! My daughter is planning on moving from Berkeley to the LA area. She’ll be closer to “home.”
Palm Springs is gorgeous.
That poem is lovely.
I’m not a member of any clubs, and I haven’t had much of an interest in anything since the pandemic, I haven’t really had an interest in anything. Now you’ve got me thinking about any kind of club I’d enjoy. Hmmm.
I’ve had a lack of interest or malaise since the pandemic, too. I’m fighting through it.
I identify with this and remember clearly your decision go move. I thought you were so brave. I learned during the riots in SA that nothing is permanent, not materials things and thanks to Covid, family too.
Live for the day on love, prayer and hope.
That’s wonderful advice, love prayer and hope. Thank you!
Right there with you. 🙂