TREE HUGGER?!

     Okay, so I have not yet walked into a forest facing a ruthless clearcut end of life, but I certainly have moved closer to that, and understand the emotions and thoughts involved much better. I have always been one who worried re the natural wonders and the small and large wonders of Nature, but never bought in to the extreme edges of conservationists. I still do not, but the quarantining and isolation of COVID-19 certainly helped push me that way.

Weirdly enough, I have found that in 'old age' I have discovered some newly functioning brain cells, hereto idle, that have taught me more about the beauty of Nature, the infinite varieties of trees, their colors, patterns, their awesome beauty, so I now wax rhapsodic re woods and try to create with them. Yes, I am using varieties of woods to do the woodworking, but I try to patronize those vendors who use every scrap, who recycle wood already in use, who treasure the beauty of woods as much as I do. So, no, I am not going to chain myself to a tree - bad back and all - but I am more aware, more "woke", shall we say, to the need to conserve and value this gift that we have ben blessed to receive.

Appreciation of gifts we have received, worthy of them or not, has also caused me to stop and think about another gift I have received simply by virtue of living here in CV. I know I worry about our future as a viable community. I fret about the incompetence at the top, but also see some others, old and new, stepping up to the plate and have hope. It is a wonderful place to live and has allowed me to share in a friendship that has enriched my life, and for that, at the end of year accounting, I am ever so grateful and appreciative.

Friends are important. One need not have a huge  number of them, merely some good and true ones. In that regard, I am so lucky. Living here has enabled me to pick up older friendships grown  distant due to life, reunited again, to make new friends, to share in concerns, happiness, sadness and help each other as we face the vagaries and trials of life, especially as we are tested by such a year as 2020.

I want to write of one group of friends that has been an unexpected pleasure and a main supportive column of my life. This is not to put down any other group, but this particular friendship circle, shall we say, is different. It began years ago, earlier in my life here at the Village, and continued on with time. A group of us, women, somehow began to meet together every other week, to join together in laughter, in concerns, in good times. Why? Cannot explain it, especially to myself, as these were women way outside my life experiences. We all were different. Yet alike at the same time. 

Over time, the group began to shape out into a nucleus of permanent attendees. People who shared other times together or not, for that did not matter, not at all. Unfortunately, time has robbed us of several friends. We miss them. For sure I know that I do. Each and every woman of this unusual conglomeration of friends, is a person I admire and treasure, a true gift. We have confided in each other, shared life with each other, cared for one another, got to know the people in our lives. Some of them, perhaps unknown to them, became my mentors, accompanied me into new endeavors and I became a better person for that.

In this mess of a year, mess of a past four years, a deadly pandemic, we have, at least for me, grown even closer, more tight knit, even as the group has been whittled down to a mainstay of four, with others coming and going depending on the time of year and health. I look forward to our now weekly, safely distanced, meetings. We laugh, we despair at the state of the country and the world, have our own solutions for these problems, and simply enjoy each other. Bugged by some health issues this year, they have buoyed me, keeping me steady in rough seas.

Blessed as I am with a number of circles of friendships, with a wonderful family, this particular group has become and remains special. This is a time of year when we take stock, scan our columns of assets and debits, and I come out with a strong asset account. This group, what it means to me, is an asset that I would not trade even for a winning lottery ticket!! Word!!

This past year, these past four years, the world has gone mad. Three quarters of this country, and I am being conservative here, appear to have descended into various states of mental illness, from sheer and deep depression to hatred and bias, to despair, to an acceptance and emulation of behavior they once would have spurned. It tested old friendships and even family ties. There was no normal anymore, nor hopes of finding our way back. Perhaps there will never be a return to that old normal, but G-d willing, we will all come to our senses and rebuild with a better one, all the better for our experiences, even as we mourn those taken from us.

We will all come to recognize that the deep desires of peace among nations, among friends, the need to be sure of and for our families, should reign supreme, taking precedence over all. It will be a time when we recover, as one person put it, from a year "of economic, physical, and emotional devastation". 

So whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah,  Kwanza, other holidays, or none at all, we are in this together. We all want peace, we want love, we want unity in our diversity, we want freedom and equality, and we want our people, those who are so crucial to a good life.

You ladies know who you are. Sorry to embarrass you. But you are a blessing in my life, one I am ever so grateful for. As we Jews have a saying, to a 120 (years) may we live, continue, and enjoy. And no yelling at me on Sunday for writing this!