It was a girls’ and mothers’ moment and it occurred this week when it was decided that North Whidbey Beach Rangers 4-H Club needed to plan a community service project.

As the mother of a club member, I was pleased with the discovery. That is because the 4-Hers have spent the last few weeks designing club jackets, preparing for the upcoming county fair and practicing drill patterns on their horses. They have also spent increasing amounts of time hauling their horses to group lessons and performance shows.

When the time had arrived for them to hop off their hay-eating beasts to meet and discuss the business aspects of their club activities, they realized they were lacking some community service activities.

Thankfully, their immediate responses were generous and enthusiastic: they would purchase, using money from previous fundraising projects, a large basket. They would fill it with items any new mother would both want and need to welcome a newborn baby. The club members would then identify a local agency in need of such items and make the delivery themselves.

So off we went, mothers and daughters, working our way down the store aisles to investigate the baby merchandise. The lone male who bravely accompanied the shoppers finally broke down and headed to the electronics department. He said it was the comment about the “itty bitty little sockies” that did him in. But we understood: it was one of those wonderful moments when being a girl is glorious.

We allowed ourselves to dip into our most primal of feelings and celebrate the joy of motherhood. And while the mothers are perfectly happy to watch our girls kiss their horses and put off motherhood into the future when college graduations and marriage ceremonies have been performed, for a few minutes choosing the softest receiving blanket and bath time toys was utterly heavenly for us all.

Once the group made it through the checkout line and out the door, the second best idea of the day was hollered by one of the girls as we walked together through the parking lot: “We’ve gotta go get some coffee!”

It was years ago when I first heard the term “coffee klatch” and I remember blowing it off as an elder-generational activity. The only klatches I had seen at that time were white-haired groups of people who huddled after Sunday worship services on the church patio, to sip lukewarm Folgers from Styrofoam cups and talk about the grand babies and cross country trips in their motorhomes.

In those days, coffee klatching was not what I was looking for. I was young, relatively unattached, and on the go. I also lived in the Sun Belt.

Then I grew up, got married, and moved to the Pacific Northwest. I entered a world filled with vast amounts of natural beauty and giant slugs, luscious evergreen trees and rhododendrons. And rain.

Once here, I immersed myself in family life. I cared for and cleaned. I drove and disciplined. I laughed and laundered and attempted to bring balance to my life when work schedules and meetings sometimes left me feeling barren.

I entered my first coffee house because I had an overwhelming desire to think my own thoughts for a few moments and warm up. I became a complete devotee the moment I sipped the slightly foamy top of a tall, double, skinny latte with a shot of vanilla syrup. I loved the way I could warm my hands as I wrapped my fingers around a cup almost too hot to hold. The warm, moist aroma also lifted my spirits.

But very soon I realized that drinking coffee is not nearly so satisfying if you drink alone. It’s far more therapeutic when you sip next to a friend. Coffee klatching slows you down, moves you out of your isolation, and connects you again with people in your community.

This week the 4-H moms sat at one table and the girls chose another one nearby. For more than an hour I looked into the faces of my darling friends and thanked God for their lives. I also realized what a good model for faith coffee klatching can be.

It begins when individual believers make it a point to move out beyond their immediate lives and spend time with other believers. “Faith klatching” also acknowledges that personal faith is frequently weaker and more stagnant when it is isolated. But that can change when people connect with each other on a regular basis. Alongside others, we can strengthen our convictions to grow closer to God, love more, choose tolerance, and act in purely forgiving ways, even when it seems difficult. We can draw upon the support and encouragement, experience and energy of others.

We’re klatching in 4-H clubs, churches, homes and coffee houses. Come join us!

Freelance writer Joan Bay Klope’s e-mail address is

jbklope@hotmailcom.