Happy Holidays to the Wednesday Women, USA!

"For auld lang syne, my dear; For auld lang syne, We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet For auld lang syne!" ~Robert Burns

   Those of our readers who have followed along with our love story from its inception in print on my blog So This is Love... will remember The Wednesday Women. For those who've yet to meet them, click on the underlined term in purple above, and it will take you to the blog post about the night The Wednesday Women met Les! 
   At one A.M. Greenwich Time these fabulous women will gather in Spokane's landmark Davenport Hotel to feast together and share an evening of respite in the company of dear friends. 

    From left to right beginning in the rear: Kialynn, Lisa, Rosemarie, Rhea; In the front: Marian and Gina. 
   I am told that over 200 people gathered a week ago Sunday at the Spokane Unitarian Universalist Church to toast Marian on her 90th birthday. You are all sisters of my heart and intellectual firebrands with whom it was always safe to think--daringly, outrageously. So much love and laughter has passed between us all down through the years. You've all sustained me--even when long periods of time passed between meetings. I carry each of you in my heart. Merry Solstice, Happy Christmas, Blessed Be!
Love JaqXX (And Les, of course who passed the special vetting you provided in February 2011!! He thinks of you all fondly and sends his love.)

The Wednesday Women

"You can take no credit for beauty at sixteen. But if you are beautiful at sixty, it will be your soul's own doing." ~Marie Stopes


   Those of you who followed our love story on my blog "So This is Love," may remember the blog post about my group of friends I call The Wednesday Women. We connected in 1995 at a Unitarian Universalist course on the dark Goddesses across world cultures. 
   Of the thirty some women who enrolled, nine of us bonded to the point we wanted to keep meeting after the course finished. We agreed to meet every Wednesday night from 6-8 p.m. at someone's house for dinner. Our host for the evening cooked for the rest of us and cleaned up. Each Wednesday dinner was at a different woman's home. Eventually we each took a turn hosting everyone else.
   We didn't miss a Wednesday for five years.
   We saw each other through divorces, marriage, relationships beginning and ending, illnesses, crises with our children and our parents; new jobs beginning and old ones ending, purchasing homes and selling them, and all of life's joys ans sorrows.
   Over time women have moved away or life circumstances dictated they leave our group, which is down to five solid members who meet once a month now, with a sixth who comes when she can. Two members live in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho and the rest live in Spokane, Washington.
   Les jokes about the cavalier way in which Americans travel hundreds of miles for dinner. Well it's true. We traveled one hundred and seventy two miles round trip for dinner with the Wednesday Women twice, and Les was the first man to ever receive an invitation to one of our gatherings!
   Tonight, across the Atlantic, and all the way across the North American continent to the Pacific Northwest, the Wednesday Women are meeting for dinner. 
   Recently one of them received an Inland Waterways map from me and Les. They can follow us on our journeys, along with the eight other Americans who received maps from us.
   Currently we are moored up at Wheaton Aston on the Shropshire Union canal, across from the Hartley Arms pub, at the top of Wheaton Aston lock.  After breakfast we are filling up with diesel and we are cruising a few miles further Northwest towards Wales. 
   The weather is overcast, with a pale grey sky and warm, dewy air. Roses, forsythia, gorse, ornamental cherry trees, primroses and daffodils are all blooming right now!
   Nettles, yellow dock, lung wort, comfrey, and heal-all are greening up on their young spring shoots and new leaves.
   Ducks, Geese, Swans, Herons, Crows, Moor hens, Coots, and most other birds are gearing up for the mating season. They are building nests, and beginning the chase that brings on another generation. Soon the canals will be filled with ducklings, goslings, and dark baby swans. Coot chicks will wobble around looking like crazy, feathered Muppets. Life is good!
   Tonight the Wednesday women will meet at Kialynn's for dinner and they will open the map and look for me and Les.
   So this is a love letter from me to them; an embrace from England to those amazing women I love dearly: Kialynn, Marian, Lisa, Rose Marie, Rhea, and Gina. The quote at the top reflects each of you, whom I carry here in my heart, every day; I miss all of you tremendously. I am there with you in spirit. Just think of the little witch! Maybe you can set a place at the table for me? Bon Appetit! Blessed Be.