This is for the hurt women. The wish-they-had-sisters women. The why-wasn’t-I-invited women.
This is for the girlfriends and heart friends and long distance friends and miss-my-friends friends. This is for the women who love long afternoons catching up and slow Saturdays on the sofa splitting the last brownie, the first story, the hard memory.
This is for the sisterhood, the motherhood, the neighborhood, the misunderstood.
This is for the places that got broken by the friends who wouldn’t forgive, couldn’t move on, didn’t hear our hearts.
This is for the old wounds, the fresh hurts, the questions and prayers and midnight pleas for a do-over, a girlfriend, a safe place, a woman who gets all the unique wonder wrapped up in you.
This is a true story, an old story, the same story that we’ve all been living. This is the hard choice of staying committed to our friends, our communities, our dreams and our God who is the crossroads where all these broken places are connected, mended, restored and intimately comprehended.
This is the gift. This is the going first. This is the spilling our hard stories so that you know you’re not alone. This is the testimony of the brave who chose friendship in spite of fear. This is the loud voice of comparison squashed down, drowned out, overcome by a choice to love, to love, to love because Christ first loved us.
This is the laying down of jealousy, the raising up of encouragement. This is the cheering for someone else and feeling the powerful joy in return. This is where we step through our computer screens and join hands across zip codes and time zones, across cultures and callings, across hurts and healings.
This is where it’s OK to cry. This is where we cup your cheeks and your heart and your stories. This is where we nod our heads and open our arms and say, “me too. Yes, me too.”
This is where women are always welcome just the way they are.
This is where I’m headed and you’re invited. And this is what home can look like even between strangers.
Meet you there this weekend?
—->just click through to join us.
And if you’re coming to my Northern VA (in)RL meetup – I can’t wait to meet you!!
I’m getting so excited about this weekend! I am believing God for big heart impact. :)
Looking forward to meeting this weekend at Sharon’s…Hikingtowardhome.com – and expecting God to show up and show off!
Can’t wait to be there and share all the real ugly-beautiful! Proud to call you friend.
I FINALLY signed my introverted self up yesterday! Thank you for patiently encouraging. There will be three of us at the meet-up. Me and two STRANGERS! (Or as my type-A extroverted children think: potential friends!) I’m going with that!
Thank you!!
I’m in Northern VA, Lisa-Jo and really, really wish I could join your Meetup! But I’ve had plans with a friend for a few weeks, so instead, we’re going to join in from my house. :She’s a blogger too and I can’t wait to introduce her to her first conference! Thank you so much for this!
Love this Lisa-Jo. You remind me of all the reasons I’m pushing against the fear… Looking forward to this weekend’s event :)
Will be praying for you and the team…