Sunday Scrabble

I didn't discover my love for scrabble until a few years ago when I had a Christmas vacation blissfully free of studying or working. Thus I could spend the afternoon sitting around the living room table with my brother, relaxing after a morning of skiing. Here's what I love about Scrabble--
-it's a slow game, one that can foster conversation, but not force it
-it favors the clever and the strategic (not necessarily the best speller, which is good because in elementary school I exited early in every spelling bee)
-it doesn't require performing. Taboo and Cranium cause major performance anxiety in me.

Two friends and I had talked all summer about getting together to have dinner and play scrabble. We couldn't make it happen until last Sunday. When our Monday night group took a giant leap of faith and split a month ago, my heart sunk when they stood on the opposite side of the room in the newly formed groups.

They are grounded in their faith and always add a richness to the conversation that comes from living a life that believes it's better to work through pain rather than to run from it. They both have a hope that stems from a deep place of trusting in something more than themselves. I really miss their presence on Monday nights.

I invited them over for dinner and play Scrabble. Luckily we were all free and it worked out well to combine it with Sunday Sabbath Dinners, something a friend and I started to share a simple meal. We caught up on each other's lives, ate delicious food, drank wine donated by a roommate, laughed about funny news stories, including the Vanity Fair article about Cher's comeback and this article about a new app for your phone. (So wrong, so wrong.) Barclay whipped us all with words like exhumed. I however, was left with the Q and the Z.

At the end of the night my saddness about the Monday night group eased just a little bit. I won't see the other 10 as often. And with some, I may never be a regular part of their lives again. But some of us can still make room for each other, still encourage each other, still laugh with each other. Maybe monthly Scrabble games will become a part of this stage in life. If so, I better start coming up with awesome words to play when I get the Q and Z again.