together Tuesdays

It's Together Tuesdays, stories of connection from the week. I have a few stories from before the illness took control of my days. You know, it's true the saying, if you have your health you have everything.

1. We visited the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum and saw the English Paper Piecing exhibit. I love EPP and was fascinated with the variety of settings shown. That post was yesterday ( see it HERE). The docent and I had a wonderful conversation. She moved her from NY state a few years ago, and is also interested in EPP. She invited me to join their group meeting at the museum. I think I might despite the long drive. I need to meet more people. Thing about meeting her, she was inclusive and open from the start... I felt at ease with her and she's open to getting to know me too. what a gift!

he'd better not chew my bones

2. I got a surprise gift from my friend yarngoddess in Texas. It was the most beautiful box, painted scene from a lake, so I put it under the tree to open Christmas day. Turns out, she was going through boxes in the house, as one does to try to let some stuff go, and came across this marionette flamingo of her daughters. She asked if it was permissible to send it to her flamingo crazy friend, and her daughter said, yes, she didn't plan on carting it around in a box for 40 years like her mom did. (ahem) the box was from special stationery used up long ago, the pretty box saved.
This story meant a lot to me. I am now connected to Diane's daughter in a way. I also keep pretty boxes and stationery for what I just don't know. It gives me pleasure but there comes a time to let go.
Now I have custody of another pretty box that will be hard to let go of!

3. Over the holiday, dh and I went to the Post Office to mail a few handmade gifts to people. Not all, I still have some to send, The line was super long, of course. I stepped in behind two interesting looking women, and then watched as another pushed her way in front of the first interesting woman who just moved aside a bit. I looked at dh and said, what's that about? he shrugged.
After all, in the scheme of things, it's not worth getting shot for.
About 10 minutes in when more people joined in behind us, and we hadn't moved an inch, the buttinski left. I asked the first woman what happened. She who was using a big cane to walk, said the person pushed in saying handicapped people can break line wherever they wanted.
Wha? She pushed in front of a woman who could barely stand in line and walked with a cane?
So now that silence was broken, we all began talking and it was somehow, a place out of time, like we'd all known each other for years. I heard the details of their lives in the next 25 minutes. I knew them in a nutshell, who they were, their fears and goals, their interests and family, their heritage and hopes.

Simply amazing. DH stood silently behind me and I suspected took a vacation in his mind while I marveled at the union of three strangers caught in a line. As conversations go, we dipped and dove from topic to topic, nodding understanding. The first woman had also lived in Baltimore, but was from the deep south and we both had people from Alabama. She looked deeply in my eyes and said she wished we'd been related. The second woman, who was much younger than us, was staying in a hotel as she had just sold her family home after her parents died. She wanted desperately to move but was now in love with  a man who had moved here and wanted to stay. She was in a hotel for the holiday and unsure how to keep her daughter in her current school, and wasn't it a miracle that her daughter went to a party and they made little Christmas trees?? They would have a tree in the room for Christmas! I felt her need for change, and sadness at selling her family home and losing her parents, the difficulty of choosing love over adventure and change.
She missed moving to the correct line to pick up mail as we were all having such a good time!

I left there kicking myself for not bringing in business cards to hand to them so we could keep in touch. I hand out cards and have never had anyone contact me though. I left gently squeezing the shoulder of the woman with a cane and exchanging wishes for a merry Christmas. (unspoken gratitude for having met each other)

All three of us said we don't understand people's reluctance to talk to each other, funny that we should all three be in line together, as we all three love the serendipity of connecting to others like that.

4. I went to a holiday office gathering of people who work with my husband. He was at the Baltimore office for so long, and was highly respected there. The move here has been a difficult adjustment, and he recently moved to this group. I learned that the leaders of the group acknowledge that people want to belong, and they make sure all the people in their group are respected and cared for.
How rare.
The boss and I talked about how work is balanced with life, and she wants her workers to be able to do their work well, but not neglect family needs.
I began to love her, and wish she taught managers how to do what she does.

I wanted to put faces to names and was excited when the boss said I could come. Turns out I was the only non employee spouse there, and one of three women, yet I felt included and one of the group.

I'm used to being mostly around women, so this was so different.
 I took two persimmons sent earlier from Susie, to share, and the two other women each got one. I learned about each person, took time to look each one in the eyes and connect. You know me... I can talk to practically anyone anytime about anything, and did.
One guy was disengaged, friendly but you know what I mean. I mentioned to another manager, that people find satisfaction at work for different reasons.... not just money but meaning, or doing something important, or being recognized, or belonging. The other guy's eyes sparkled, and he leaned in and said, variety is important! I said, oh yes, do you have that here? He responded no but he did at the last job, and told me about it.We went on to talk about his passions outside of work, and he loves movies. LOVES them. In fact he was just about to leave to go see another with his grown son.
The big boss, a woman (in engineering, its great to know women are respected) said she was leaving at the crack of dawn to fly to pick up her son at school in Texas, and the two of them were driving back to CO for the holidays. She hoped to have enough time to connect with him again while on the trip.
I met another guy who married a woman from the British Isles. I told him we mostly watch BBC productions, and that started a whole conversation about marrying into another culture. If I'd said, what do you do at this company, the conversation would have ended with one word. He was Ex-navy so we also had Annapolis to talk about.
One guy was having his hip replaced over the holidays, and jokingly asked if we wanted to see the scar. All these big strong smart men looked away and went ewww. I said, okay. He grew up in Clearwater Florida, where I used to sashay around in my bikini as a high schooler. Small world.
It was an unexpectedly fun night, and very stimulating, talking about places these men had lived, their families, their hobbies and I saw them as people not coworkers.

5. I'll stop with the conversation we shared at the Denver Museum of Science extreme sports exhibit.
A docent was silently sitting next to these when dh joked we need them to walk on the unplowed streets around us. Turns out, he was fascinating. Everyone one else just passed by him without engaging him and he was a sports medicine doctor specializing in orthapaedics.He said the invention of modern sports equipment cause more trouble as people who shouldn't be doing it, and no one should be doing it anyway, are now getting extreme injuries. He said the whole thing really started with skateboards back in the 50's and with tv shows now many people want to do crazy dangerous things like jumping off buildings. It was cool to hear his take on all this, up to his friend, another physician, who does extreme sports too!!! We don't always do what's good for us.

Anyone for a quiet walk in the woods? Meditation? Tai chi?

a final thank you to a woman who left a random comment on my post. She led me back through the web to a group of writers I want to explore this year. She would have no idea her comment could bring me such fun!
Happy new year's eve!

Linking to
all seasons

cheesy photos at ched curtain
Our World Tuesday