Tuesdays with Janet

You remember the best-seller "tuesdays with morrie". Well, My grandmother, before she died, had a 'club' of her best friends that would get together on Tuesdays (the day my grandfather worked at the temple) where they would talk, do yoga, eat, laugh, cry, but most of all glean wisdom from the oldest one there, my grandmother Janet...thus their Janet dates became" tuesdays with Janet". Now, my grandmother wasn't very old..maybe 60-65 at the time. But the age span was as young as me and as old as Grandma. I was always so impressed that a group of women could get together with such different backgrounds, and different ages, and yet still have so much to talk about. The past two years, Tuesday's with Janet slowly faded as lives became busy.

Then, my grandma died...on a tuesday. And was it a coincidence? Her funeral was on a Tuesday. So, in honor of her, we decided to try and resume our Tuedays with Janet as often as we could. And Yesterday was our first time. We all met at Grandma's house, just as we always would. What a day!

It was a short date...maybe an hour and a half with us all there. Addie came with me, and even had her spot at the table. As I sat down, my eyes scanned the table. What a diverse ages and backgrounds we have! And yet, we all have so much in common through Janet. Addie, age 2 talked about her train book she got from the Library that morning. Myself, 27, talked about life with babies and unknown future. Marie Hafen (70 something? Wife of Bruce C. Hafen area athority over all of eastern Europe) had flown in from Frankfurt the night before and talked about what she does as the Wife of a general authority. Martha (40 something?) talked about her world travels as she is the property manager/landscaper for mission homes and other important properties. Stephanie (30 something? ) talked about life as a busy mom of 4 and Jennifer (50 somethins) talked about the challenges of a wayward son and adopted little girl from asia. Wow. What a group! I think that the common thread is that at one point, she had been everyone's yoga teacher. But the neat thing was that all of us there had learned through Grandma that the ups and downs of life are part of the beauty of the journey. We had all learned from her how to just "be". We had all learned how to let go of pretenses and just let our true selves come through. We learned how to take care of the earth, and eat well. We learned how to love and FOrgive. We have all learned in our own special ways how to just "get real". Even me. Even a toddler. Even a general authorities wife. She has really left her mark.

Lunch was wonderful...fresh homeade salsas and spinach salads, and fresh fruit. But the best part, is yet to come. Continued get togethers where we can do yoga, and talk and learn from eachother as Grandma learned from us, and we learned from her. There were a lot of tears, and a lot of laughs. But yesterday I learned something. It is never to late to learn from someone else. It is never too late to change. It is never too late to love. Grandma Janet brought in all who wanted to understand a better way of living, and now, i want to do the same. No walls, no judgements. Just Be. Thanks Grandma.