***As I have mentioned in a previous blog post, this is not my only blog. I have been writing something like a weekly blog for my family for over eight years, ever since my husband and I moved to Virginia from Hawaii and were, for the first time, empty-nesters. The blog has a name, Monday Morning Update, now just referred to as the MMU. It began as a way to let our three grown children (one in Hawaii, one in London, and the other in North Carolina) know what we had done over the weekend and the previous week to get to know our new state. Over time people asked if they could 'join the MMU,' people we consider extended family. Today there are 18 contacts on the MMU list, and it has become somewhat interactive as our children and others respond back and forth. Once we moved back to Washington the MMU morphed in to much more than an update on our travels. Often it is humorous, always I have various photos attached, sometimes it is a little bit serious, as it once a week ago. Because the subject was 'Shared Experiences, the Ties That Bind,' I though much of the Bethel Valley Girls as I wrote it. With just a little editing, I am copying it here:
Whether good or bad, shared experiences tend to bind people together. That’s one way families stay close together even when scattered and separated by many miles. It is the same with friends and even with communities. I have been thinking about that this past week, and certainly it comes to mind every week when I sit down to write the MMU. What started eight years ago as a weekly “This is what Dad and I did over the weekend to get acquainted with our new home, Virginia, but really to help us mask the pain we feel of missing all of you” eventually morphed into “Remember when this happened?” That’s because by reminiscing about shared experiences, we felt closer to our children we missed so much. Over time the MMU Family expanded because of shared experiences with more people whose lives have intertwined with the original five members of our family. These are the ties that bind.
Since last week’s MMU, a few things have happened in the Seattle area to bring people together, all with national, even International, ramifications. One was so tragic, it hurts to think about it. On Thursday a Seattle Duck Boat Tour vehicle with over 30 tourists aboard went out of control on the Aurora Bridge and eventually crashed in to the side of a charter bus carrying International students out for a tour of Seattle just days after they arrived here to study abroad. Dozens were injured, and tragically, five students from North Seattle Community College died as a result of this crash. As we watched the news coverage of this terribly sad event, I got such a lump in my throat as we saw reports of the hundreds of people who quickly showed up to donate blood, to bring food to the 90 first-responders who were on the scene almost immediately, of the people who jumped barriers to offer their assistance, multitudes who continue to reach out to grieving family and friends. As with any disaster, the goodness of people rises to the surface. People want to join together to help in any way they can. Bad times can bring people together.
And then, on the flipside, good times bring people together too. Of course it’s more fun to focus on that. Yesterday was a good example. A record crowd of over 69,000 filled Seattle’s Century Link Stadium to cheer the Seattle Seahawks on to victory over the Chicago Bears, 26-0. I admit I get a lump in my throat when I watch the jubilant Seattle players, whose stories we now know so well, hug each other after superb plays. I also get a lump in my throat when I see players from opposing teams hug each other after games, win or lose, big smiles on their faces. I get that same lump when I see the fans jumping up and down in glee, all wearing their ‘12’ jerseys, cheering on the team they love so much. Same lump for the singing of the national anthem. Shared experiences in good times bring people together.
Did you see the Blood Moon/lunar eclipse last night? After watching the Seahawks game, we drove out to Manchester, where we used to live, and parked on a side street just one block over from Leola Lane. We were on the hill looking across Puget Sound to downtown Seattle, West Seattle, the Cascade Mountains beyond, and, off to the right, Mount Rainier, which looked like a giant strawberry ice cream cone in the evening glow. As we drove to our chosen spot we saw all the cars lined up on all the other streets of this small community, filled with people with binoculars. We were all there for the shared experience of viewing something that won’t happen again for 18 years.
While we were waiting for the moon to rise and be eclipsed, I received a text from my friend Pat, with whom I had so many shared experiences in Hawaii, we are bonded for life. Pat now lives in North Carolina, but she was texting, out of the blue, about watching the lunar eclipse from a hotel parking lot in Kentucky, on the last leg of their three-week vacation. She had no idea we were preparing to do the same out in Manchester. How fun it was to text back and forth, sharing this global experience from opposite sides of our country.
As we sat in our car, we reminisced about the eclipse of the sun many years ago, when our children were very small. I had them up to the window in our living room to watch how dark it got that morning. Over at the shipyard it got strangely quiet as all of the seagulls thought it was bedtime and went to roost! Yes, this was a shared experience for them too.
The moon was beautiful last night, from the beginning of the eclipse to the end when it became amazingly bright. And I was wondering, did our MMU Family members in Sweden and Greece witness the same eclipse?
Our whole day yesterday was a happy one of shared experiences. After attending church together with friends of decades, we all met for coffee at our usual place, Cutters Point in Gig Harbor, sitting outside in the beautiful sunshine like we have as a group countless times. Funny, Pat and her husband came to mind as I sat there. I was thinking about the one time they joined us at Cutters Point after attending church with all of us when they spent a week with us two years ago during their move from Hawaii to North Carolina. I also thought of our friend John, no longer with us but such a key person in our life when we think about shared experiences. Laurie was with us, as always, bonded with us for life, because besides all the happy times we spent together through life, we also all walked beside her through John’s journey through cancer and then his passing in January. Our shared experiences of friendship have helped her cope, heal and become strong again. And yesterday, as we all sat around two tables together, we were laughing and reminiscing as we so often do. To be sure, we have all gone through very sad times in life, but because of the ties that bind, looking back on life, somehow it all seems good because we have experienced it all, the good and the bad, together.
I just want to say today that I am eternally grateful for all the shared experiences I have with all of you. They are what bind the MMU Family together.
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And they are also what bind the BVG's together.
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