The Isaiah House May Day Festival was another smashing success for the Marti Fischer Event Planning Team better known as Women of Vision. These volunteer members of Orange County Women of Vision are not satisfied with standing in the kitchen, serving the soup line and chatting among themselves. They are out with the women – the temporary female residents of the Isaiah House shelter for women without homes. In fact, it’s getting harder and harder to differentiate anymore between the two groups. Last night they were all dancing around the Maypole.

Yes, that’s right, a Maypole. The pole was our neighbor’s portable tetherball stand draped with 12 colorful ribbons. I was skeptical that anyone would want to do this, and once again I was wrong. Everyone did, and enthusiastically at that. There was skipping and dancing and clapping to the music and lots of laughter. I don’t know how Marti does it but she gets away with anything here. One new woman told me she came in late and heard all the commotion – the laughter and carrying on – and then she got closer and realized, “Oh, of course, it was the teacup lady!”

Along with a celebration of spring, they put out a table of paper, paints, glue, chalk, and molding clay for anyone to try their hand at creating. Some of the pieces were remarkable, but the most memorable was a poster that read, “In the end it’s all about love.” Love has created an attitude of acceptance and equality. There is no “us” and “them” here anymore. There is trust, and because of this, there is just “us.”

One picture came with a poignant story. It’s a sketch of palm trees on a deserted island with a very large, warm sun in the background. “It’s what I think about all the time,” the artist told me, “…being all alone on an island in the sea – just me and my children.”