Resilience
By Maggie Fenton
“She stood in the storm and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails.” Elizabeth Edwards.
I read a short article that suggested older people, as a group, have adapted to the circumstances of the pandemic better and have been more resilient than other age groups. There’s been no study yet and of course, time only will tell if this is true. I do know that my conversations with my older friends seem to be filled with more joy and laughter than those with the younger crowd. When the post lady (mask on) delivered a package the other day, she said “You two seem so calm!” I assured her that we do worry but are resolved to limit our outings, wear masks when needed and to keep on going as long as we can. We have meaningful work on our little farm (want some squash or tomatoes?) and are finding great joy in simple pleasures. We’ve learned to limit our media time so we don’t get too caught up in the national angst. Instead of going door to door, we signed up to mail postcards to get out the vote and promote our choice of candidates. We zoom with friends and family to keep connected. If you asked me what I miss most, I would tell you seeing friends face to face and the hugs. Of course, we realize we are very lucky; as retired elders with adequate income, we don’t have the worries of having to be out in the fray.
I suspect, if we are more resilient than others, it’s because we’ve each lived long enough to weather other storms in our life. Kahill Gibran wrote “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” In a conversation with one of my grandsons (via phone message), I told him this was the most difficult period of time for all of humanity I had seen in my seventy-one years but it wasn’t the most difficult time personally I’d experienced. Of course, for him, at age seventeen, it is probably both. One of his disappointments is not getting to fully participate in all the activities that are normal for a high school senior, including enjoying his status as a football captain. It’s likely he won’t get to play at all and that he will be attending many of his classes from his desk at home. I can only hope this is his personal most difficult life experience but I doubt it will be.
As elders of our tribes, we can offer our resilience and our hope that the wind will soon change, blow in a favorable way and life will get better. Meanwhile, keep adjusting your sails, stay safe and be well.
September 26 Equinox Zoom Gathering
Please fill out the form below to register for a two-hour September 26, 2020 Fall Equinox Online Zoom Gathering at 10:00 a.m. PDT, 10:00 a.m. MST – Arizona, 11:00 a.m. MDT, 12 noon CDT and 1:00 p.m. EDT.
There is a $15.00 charge for this meeting. NO REFUNDS WILL BE ISSUED.
You will need to be familiar with using Zoom on your desktop computer, laptop or tablet. Phones are not recommended. There will be no tech support right before or during the gathering so if you are unsure about how to use Zoom please contact registrar@cronescounsel.org.
September 26, 2020
Times:
10:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time
10:00 a.m. Mountain Standard Time (Arizona only)
11:00 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time
12:00 noon Central Daylight Time
1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time
Other countries, please determine your time.
The Gathering will last approximately two hours.
Agenda
Opening
Storytelling
Wisdom Circles of approximately six to ten women in each
Closing
Family Memories
By Merit Medusa
My sister & I always joke that when we want moms home cooking all we need to do is run to the frozen food section in any grocery store and buy a packet of Stauffers ‘Tuna noodle casserole’.
Bless her heart…
Mom was a model in the 1940s. She was married with two young girls but managed to travel up and down the East Coast modeling for country clubs and colleges. She said she spent most of what she earned on the clothes she modeled and they were always trying to get her to lose weight and get down to a dress size 8!
My eldest sister had four men to feed and became a casserole Queen. Here is her favorite recipe. Delicious but not healthy. I became an herbalist and vegetarian.
Shrimp and Green Noodles
• 1/2 8oz. pkg. spinach noodles
• 2 lbs. shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 cup dairy sour cream
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 tsp. Dijon style mustard
• 1 T. chopped chives
• 4 T. dry sherry
• 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
Cook noodles as directed on package. Line a casserole with noodles and make into a nest. In large frying pan sauté the shrimp in 1/2 cup clarified butter until pink and tender, about 5 minutes. Cover noodles with shrimp. Combine soup, sour cream, mayonnaise and chives; add mustard and sherry. Pour sauce over shrimp and sprinkle cheddar cheese over all. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until all cheese is melted and bubbly.
Serves 6
“Stuck in the Middle with You”
By Anne Richardson
One of the episodes of The Golden Girls shows the three women stars as just heads floating in a tub. This is the only part of them that survived after their death. And they can STILL talk with each other! Well, wouldn’t you know, that is what it feels like in Zoom Meetings! We just get to see the heads, but it’s so incredible to see all those faces!
Human beings seek to understand their historic roots and to locate themselves in time and space. Knowing what happened to the goddesses of ancient times continues to answer questions for us about who we are as elders. Isn’t it wonderful to see those “full-bodied” goddesses with their sagging bodies who were still revered in their culture? Isn’t it wonderful in our current life to see the “full bodies” of those we know, observing their movements, and seeing them in full motion?
We need spatial and geographic perspectives, like in traveling and visiting, to make decisions that are informed and caring ones for our people and our environment. What if you never saw a homeless person? Would you believe they existed? And if you never were in a raging storm up close and personal, would you understand the trauma of the damage? That’s what makes us special, we have all those experiences stored for reference.
Yet, here we are stuck in the middle between a world which comes on the screen for social interaction, and our longing for the past where we could enjoy our cultural identity among family and friends, and institutions, be it a church, or museum, or artistic event.
Hopefully the younger generation will help us become more tech savvy, while we tell them “how it used to be.”
Now, more than ever, we are the memory of our culture.
We are hanging “in balance” between the past and the future. We are learning and adapting. We try to balance the anxious energy of the running brook to get into the mainstream again, and the patience of the mountain, staying solid and grounded, waiting for time to heal our world.
Register to join us on September 26th in a Zoom meeting to share our balance of today, and keeping our dreams of the future alive. We’d like to share our “stuck in the middle” feelings with YOU!!