By Grace Maselli
This Sunday, February 10, in honor of timebanking and Valentine’s Day, 18 of us gathered to celebrate. We had poets and painters and a naturopath. We had an insurance specialist, a Liberian cookbook author fluent in French—professional writers, teachers, puppies, and a professor from Pasco County’s St. Leo University. We had an online university student and many students of life. There were two almost-too-adorable, bright, kind, creative kids who made up Valentine’s stories on the fly! We had a former priest and a Zen Buddhist who studied in Japan. We talked about first dates and weddings. About loving, sought-after step mothers who are confidantes and sources of deep connection to their spouse’s children from other loving mothers. We talked about inter-generational mother-daughter relationships, bad dates, lost loves, hormones, and life in general. We took a Valentine’s Day quiz and had some lively responses! We shared our newly printed fliers and, of course, we ate and then ate some more. Tuna, pasta, chicken, star fruit, split peas, carrots, avocados, pizza, chocolate…a suitable smorgasbord!
