Summer Solstice Gathering

Crones Counsel will have its first ‘online’ gathering June 20th – for the Summer Solstice. It will be at 10 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time; 10 a.m. Mountain Standard time – Arizona, which in summer months is the same as Pacific time; 11 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time; 12 Noon Central Daylight Time; and 1 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. If you plan to attend, put this on your calendar now. For this first one, there will be no charge. You will need to do two important things to join this gathering. 1) REGISTER on the Crones website. Registration will be available until June 13th. 2) Make sure you know how to use ZOOM. If you need help with this, ask some of your friends or family OR  let us know so we can arrange a practice ahead of time. THERE WILL NOT BE ANY TECHNICAL HELP AVAILABLE DURING THE GATHERING. This may seem strident but experience has shown us that the whole time scheduled can be taken up resolving one or two participants’ technical problems and to have a successful experience, we just can’t do it.

Invincible Summer

By Maggie Fenton

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.” Albert Camus

Some of you are already experiencing the heatwaves of summer but here in the upper Midwest, spring has barely arrived. We had a very long, cool .. no cold .. spring with multiple nights below freezing when we thought all our fruit crops were doomed. However, nature in all her glory, prevailed and right now it is snowing crabapple blossoms. The other most amazing happening has been the abundance of beautiful birds .. orioles, red breasted grosbeaks, tanagers, bluebirds, indigo buntings, redstarts .. too many to list, that have been so hungry from their long journey, they’re literally at my window in the morning demanding more food. What a gift.

I hope all of you are prevailing too. I know some are very isolated, some are free to move about and others are caught between the two extremes. The pandemic has impacted us all. Things have changed and will continue to change. My hope is that we emerge from this healthy and with more understanding and awareness of how we are all connected.

What Being a Crone Means to Me

Being a crone is an acknowledgement of the cycles of our woman-hood: maiden, mother and post-menopausal crones that hold ‘cronings’ or ritual celebrations of our connection with each other. Today it is more important than ever that we welcome the many ways we each will pass the baton to our young ones. What better way than with humor to share what being a Crone means to me. “YOU KNOW YOU ARE A CRONE IF …”

• You wobble when you walk and may need a cane for balance.
• When your prolific offspring have given you great, and even great great grand kids.
• You wonder when someone calls a friend of yours a prick, when in reality they said Brit.
• You give up wearing earrings because putting them on interferes with getting your hearing aids in place.
• To use the TV remote you still use ROKU because the Apple TV remote is so fast you breathe on it and it changes channels.
• Spelling is a challenge on SEARCH, not because you forgot the alphabet, but because they got it sooo mixed up.
• There are too many choices of what to watch on-line that have stars who look young enough to be your grandchildren.
• When asked on NextDoor about your favorite concert ever attended, you wonder if Willie Nelson is dead and who Justin Bieber is.
• They give you the senior discount at Target without asking if you qualify for it.
• Friends who haven’t seen you in a few years comment that you look shorter,
• You are old enough to bring your daughter to Crones Counsel gatherings.
• You yearn to be an honored elder over 80 and feel impatient as it is so many years away and as you get closer to that age by single digits and you think they should change the age to qualify to 90+.
• You start calling your ex’s “then husbands or then partners” because it sounds nicer.
• You buy extra packages of menstrual pads not for menstruation (you can hardly remember it) but for “preventive pee pads” and wonder if you’re not ecologically correct.
• The Carly Simon song “Anticipation” rhymes with the reason you drink prune juice daily.
• You calculate how much money you’re saving on Loreal hair coloring by letting your roots show and then going completely white.
• You itch in places it’s embarrassing to scratch.
• You realize you were part of the sexual revolution and can’t remember who you slept with in those days and/or what years that was.
• You think of cleaning out your closet and giving away or donating clothing you haven’t fit into or worn in years because it will save your relatives ad family from doing it when you die.

Pat Hanson can be reached at pat@invisiblegrandparent.com.

What Gives Me Strength
By Kaya Kotzen

It is the women in my life that hold me.
It is the women in my life that mold me.
It is the women in my life that enfold me,
fill my needs, cushion my falls, pick me up,
encourage me to go forth.
It is the women in my life that parent me in ways
I have missed, in times that I need it.
It is the women in my life that feel my tears,
allow them to fall, hug and hold me when
I don’t know  where to turn.
It is the women in my life who save my life,
breathe my sorrows, share my joys.
It is the women in my life who bear witness to my trials
as I do theirs.
We are sisters, though not family,
loving, though not lovers,
Nurturers though not always  the nurtured ones.
It is the women in my life who open the door
to my soul and whom I let walk in to know it.
The  women I trust, women I depend  upon,
So special are my women friends,
In them, I see myself.

From Midwives of the Soul

https://www.facebook.com/midwivesofthesoul/

My grandmother once gave me a tip:
In difficult times, you move forward in small steps.
Do what you have to do, but little by little.
Don’t think about the future, or what may happen tomorrow.
Wash the dishes.
Remove the dust.
Write a letter.
Make a soup.
You see?
You are advancing step by step.
Take a step and stop.
Rest a little.
Praise yourself.
Take another step.
Then another.
You won’t notice, but your steps will grow more and more.
And the time will come when you can think about the future without crying.
– Elena Mikhalkova