Photoessay #1464 - Inner Circle

I am privileged to be a member of a group of five older women (I'm calling over 50 as older) who came together to take a writing class last summer. We had no prior connection to each other. Two of the women knew the teacher of the class. We gathered once a week for eight weeks to read short pieces about different parts of our life. What to do when the class is over? Tentatively we agreed to meet in a few weeks time and continuing to read our writing to each other.

Would it last?

Now, a year later, the group has gelled into an important source of personal support. For all of us! Bonds have deepened. Trust has grown. We worry about each other. One thing I notice with women who meet together with strong connections. Tons of eye contact. We meet every two weeks and read our writing. But we all look directly at each other a lot. To give support, reassurance, encouragement, disbelief.

Ages 51-66
Three are married, one separated
2 have 4 kids, 1 has 3, 1 has 2
4 are grandmothers
One retired public school nurse
1 retired bus driver and waitress
1 has never worked outside the home for money
1 is developing a new career in geriatric activities
1 lost her job in academics, maybe now retired
1 in recovery from sexual abuse and alcoholism
1 caregiver for partner with terminal lung disease
1 has husband who will likely be soon starting dialysis

And we all have stories to tell. This last meeting we wrote on the theme 'promises'; the next time the theme is 'whispering'.

Here's what we wrote about:

A wrote about promises she made to herself about getting sober when she was drinking and how she finally was able to honor her own promise

S wrote an insightful piece about the marriage promises that Ed and she made 37 years ago and how the meaning of those promises and the acceptance of each other's emotional backgrounds changes over the years. The piece also emphasized her commitment to redefine their relationship and marriage.

Sandy wrote a humorous piece about an incident in sixth grade where her math teacher said he would "eat her hat" if she was right about a certain math problem. The next day she brought a purple Disneyland with a huge pink feather to school. He realized that Sandy was right and he had to get out of actually eating that hat.

K read three poems about promises, including one about childhood promises, an intimate piece about acceptance of changes in Steven's body given kidney disease and an exploration of change using the model of childbirth.

Yes, you are right if you guessed that I posted an earlier edition on this blog recently.

Something has clicked with us five. And I'm thrilled about it.

Picture taken last summer, a setup shot for the teacher's website.