Meetup

Last night I attended our local book discussion group at the library where we discussed "A Reliable Wife."  I liked the book and the group, which led me to invite the group to my house at the end of this month for an evening of Yahtzee.  I've been meaning to get together more often with people that I enjoy being with but one thing always seems to lead to another and such things keep getting pushed to the side.  The invitation is out there and I'm excited to have an evening with friends, old and new.

As the book group was preparing to leave one of the women, who was new to the group, came up to me to tell me about groups that meet and share common interests.  The groups function under the title Meetup.  According to her understanding, these groups began 10 years ago after 9/11 as a way to help people connect in their communities.  She said she's been going to a Scrabble Meetup group that gets together once a week, during the day, to play Scrabble.  The members of this group decided that they didn't want to drive after dark so set up their meeting time to accommodate this group decision.

I searched the Meetup site in my area and found walking, biking, dining, yoga, meditation, vegan, moms, and singles groups, just to name a few.  These are offline clubs, as opposed to the hundreds of online friends a person might have as they sit home alone.  

Numerous studies show that people with friends have better health, both physical and mental, and live longer.  As people who work in a caring profession it's also important to care for ourselves.  One way is by nurturing friendships.  Meetup makes it easy.