Tuesday, September 24, 2013

No Whining Allowed



September 22, 2013

Over glasses of wine, we sat on a wide front porch, visited with animated and introspective women from the neighborhood after dark. Lots of laughs, neighbor secrets and stories of our children, ACT scores and being good examples as mothers. We nearly solved the world’s problems, or at least the issues within spitting distance from the stoop.

I so enjoy getting to know the people on the West Side. It is stimulating and just plain fun to be around new friends. Struck by women’s stories of what is important for them to share of themselves, I find myself feeling open and willing to bear my experiences.

One Hmong woman, escaping the regime in Laos as a very young girl, with her sister, brother, parents and grandmother, admitted recalling the sights from the San Francisco bridge to Minnesota snow. Surprise birthday party tales to memories of our children’s antics were divided amongst our group in a matter of a few hours. I gain so much from each woman, their tragedies of the loss of a mother to one daughter who saw her dead grandpa pass through the doorway during breakfast. We parted, connected, with the promise to be together again very soon.  

No comments:

Post a Comment