Mu Shu Pork and Fortune Cookies

The day we joined our church, my friend told me that her Circle was meeting the next night and I should come.  So I did.  At that time the church had a women's organization with a large membership; it was divided into morning and evening "circles" named for women of the Bible.  I became a member of Deborah Circle, a group of about 15 women who grew to become movers and shakers in our congregation.  We meet once a month from September through June and have devotions, a topic or project, a brief business meeting, and the all-important refreshments.  One of our members has an in-ground swimming pool, and she invites us for a pot luck supper and swim in July.   And it used to be that nothing happened in August, Circlewise.

Then one Sunday morning, just before the service began, three of us were in the back of the church and out of the blue, one of us said, "Let's go out to the Chinese restaurant for dinner tomorrow night."  Thus began the Deborah Circle Almost Annual Chinese Dinner.  In twenty-five years, I've only missed one of them and still regret it.  Eventually the closest Chinese restaurant became too grungy for our patronage and it didn't help when Joe learned of our concern and began making comments about there being fewer stray cats in the area.  So we moved to another venue and at that place began a new custom, that of ordering "drinks with umbrellas."

Last night fourteen of us gathered for food, fellowship, mild misbehavior and drinks with umbrellas.  It was a good time.  We relived old comedy, caught up on each others' lives, and made some vague plans for the September meeting (I believe it is to be a pot luck salad supper at my house).  I came home full and happy and thought that in the midst of a great deal of change in my life, this group of wonderful women is a constant.  And that is good.