“When I took the dog sled team down the Yukon to the next town.”

My dinner companion last night began her story with that sentence. I looked up and blurted out that I could feel a blog posting coming. So began one of the more interesting evenings I have spent on this island.

Ten of the women had gathered at my friends for a dim sum dinner around her massive farm style dining table. The pot luck concept applied to Chinese food. The selection of food was varied and delicious. As we feasted, the conversation began with the question posed “How many here have driven a motorcycle?” Several hands went up. The topic then evolved from the most unusual life experience to include a discussion about the most dangerous or scary situation we had ever found ourselves. Those times in our life where we had faced a challenge and afterward had thought.. Yikes…..!

“The summer I worked as a deck hand on a fish boat out of Prince Rupert.”
“When I was airlifted out of Ghana after the military coup in 1982”
“I was held by two men with sawed off shotguns in a Caribbean banana field”
“Separated for hours from my tour group in a bazaar in India”
“Invited for lunch with the Queen (of England).”

I paraphrase but you get the idea. The stories which followed those opening sentences were as interesting as you can imagine. The table sat in respectful silence as each woman shared her adventure. As the turns were taken and the tales told,  it became very clear that I was sitting with some extraordinary women. There is a lot more to them than knitting and tomatoes. My mother told me to surround myself with interesting women. Women of substance.  I did as I was told.

We have come to this island from a variety of backgrounds.  No one really talks about their past, conversations more focused on problem solving. I’ve lived here six years and knew that my next door neighbour was a great quilter but I had no idea she has a proclivity for paragliding and risk taking.

It was a really interesting evening and one I thoroughly enjoyed. This morning eleven of us turned up for yoga. It was not a day for risky adventures but reflective appreciation for the lives we have been given.

Sometimes this

blog writes itself