Of all the Zooms this week the one that stands apart, the one that has taken nearly a week to write about, was the memorial held for my friend who passed from the virus. The gentleman we lost knew how to make an impression. He had on me, and his death surprised and stung. A day or two after we lost him a Facebook page sprung up in his name. Many of us shared our rememberances of him and it helped. His family graciously invited the group to “attend,” to watch, a small private Zoom Memorial this past Sunday. His siblings, his parents, a few of his closest friends, all shared poems, songs, videos and their prayers. These folk were not well Zoom acquainted and the feed kept dropping and popping up on other parts of the page, but the effort was made, and it mattered that it happened. In this time of non-in-person this somewhat collective opportunity to mourn was invaluable.
Also this week PareaGroove had a couple parties, the regular Saturday hang, which people have come to expect, and are now more frequently attending, anda smaller mid-week hang which was also well attended. Thursday we had a special guest, Frances Fitzgerald Cleveland of Frogworks, Inc., give a very thorough and informative lecture about aromatherapy and herbal teas, surrounded by her pets from her beautiful Colorado ranch, which she toured us around a bit. The major theme of the talk was how to chill the F out. Herbs highly recommended were frankincense, myrrh, spikenard, sweet marjoram, vetiver, oatseed, linden blossoms, lavender and bergemot, among others. Booze can only do so much! But I’m guessing a little tipple in a tisane can’t hurt!
