Last night we had our December meeting. Our November meeting was canceled due to the hurricane so it had been awhile since the meeting room was filled with women. 38 women showed up with the collective intention to stay out of the insanity of the season and seek balance by coming together for something bigger than ourselves. Our meetings are never about escaping our own lives, or "using" horrific experiences to find gratitude. Our meetings are about allowing our own We signed cards, prayed, wrapped gifts and signed up to help in small ways and larger ones. We are asking 20 women to commit to raising $500 within their own circles for Chrissy, a mom in a neighboring town who is getting a double mastectomy in a few weeks. We are going to raise at least $10,000 for her so that she can have live in help for her 10 month old twin boys after her surgery. WOW this seems like quite a lofty goal right? At first we had one brave soul take the challenge. Then all I had to do is speak about her and the say to a room full on mother's these words: "She will not be able to hold her babies for 2 months" and before I knew it we had 7 more women signed up.
I would like to be able to say that Chrissy was the only story that broke all of us open last night. She was not. A house fire in Ridgefield, New Jersey that took a mother and son away from the rest of their family (sending financial support) 6 families who lost everything in Hurricane Family (sending gift cards and selling teachers gifts to fundraise) My beloved teacher and friend of 21 years, Patti has breast cancer (sending a 5lb Hershey bar) A woman in Basking Ridge in severe pain after a car accident (Heartworkers taking her to appointments) Another Basking Ridge mom in treatment for cancer (Heartworkers making dinners every night) 3 families grieving a son, a grandson and a mother this Christmas...(3 Wreaths with these words hanging on a tag "Everyday my love for you grows higher, deeper, wider, stronger...It grows and grows until it touches the tip of where you are and comes back to me in the loving memory of you, and my heart melts with that love and grows even more."- Maureen Hunter and we filled each wreath with prayers for a gentle December) Then there is Sweet Drew, a young helicopter pilot injured in Afganistan (sending cookies and a card) and Christmas cards to 7 children who are sick in hope that receiving a letter in the mail will make them smile even for a moment. We prayed for ourselves and for others. We cried and we laughed at our own self absorption and ignorance. We signed up for what we could and in honor of so much suffering, committed to practicing gratitude in our daily lives.
Last night in a small New Jersey town, 38 women drove home with a commitment to stay out of the chaos and excess of this holiday season as much as possible. We will do this in honor of mothers who are to sick to stress about a J Crew fleece arriving in the wrong size and parents to grief stricken to think about what they are wearing to a party and soldiers sleeping in a ditch away from their families.
We commit to being present and grateful and to pay attention to the wounds in our own lives, knowing that at the end of the day we are all in this together, in all different phases of the journey on any given day.
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