Friday, May 25, 2012

Women in the Garden





We met when our children were in kindergarten. Within a school that actively forged connections among families, our class was especially close. Fourteen years later, we are still a community, watching as our young ones head off into their almost grown up lives. They—and we—have remained "like family," the title of the class autobiography our children wrote and published in seventh grade. Over the years, our young ones have romped through each other's houses, sure of their welcome on birthday sleepovers, after-school play dates, homework collaborations and teenage hang out sessions. Now, together, their parents are approaching the empty nest. When we gather these days, we plan all the ways we will find to kick up our heels. And as our children have also done through the years, we keep the talk therapy going. We are all in the same place, souls of different temperaments who allow space for one another's continual unfolding. There is such comfort in that. These photos were taken on a recent Sunday when we gathered for an evening pot luck in an urban garden. Fathers and children were also present, but it is the mothers' contemplative faces that grabbed me when I looked at the photos later. I love these women. They know my walk and I know theirs.  


8 comments:

  1. Great post Angella.
    You know, I don't know how I missed this. I just was here yesterday. Give me time to catch up!
    m.

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    1. Mark, I'm posting so much this month! So much happening and me with the need to process it all.

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  2. You have such an eye. Beautiful, beautiful women. You are all lucky to have each other and your daughters to have you, too. A tribe of mothers.

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    1. Ms. Moon, i love that, we are a tribe. We are a tribe in this place, too.

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  3. Oh, yes. I don't know these women but I KNOW them in my own women friends. I look at them and see such beauty.

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    1. Elizabeth, i really deeply know what you mean, and I'm glad you have that. love.

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  4. Angella, I wish I could be in the world the way you are in the world. I admire it so much.

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  5. Rebecca, it is not my natural state, but my kids force me to engage and i was fortunate to find women like these. i feel great comfort with them. we rage and we laugh. i can be whoever i am being in that moment. but i also don't under estimate the support and connection i feel here. xo

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