There is a room full of women all sharing their hearts and their words with each other. Right now. Here. Together tonight. At the Allume Conference.
You’re with us too because this is our safe space. This Friday exhale of words without the editor’s voice. Without the voice that tells us we aren’t skinny enough, or talented enough, or have clean enough houses.
On Fridays we silence that voice and we just write without worrying if it’s just right or not.
Click over here for the back story on how to join us.
Five minutes. On the word TOGETHER
GO:
There is no better alone
There is no comfort in the dark night of duvet covers crawled over our heads listening to the lies of the loneliness.
There is no better by ourselves.
There is light and life in the garden of community
There is the cord of love and laughter and generous life and joy poured out in the presence of sisters held together by grace and days of endless dirty laundry.
There is fresh faith and beautiful courage built into the days of sitting down on the front step and saying, I can’t do this thing aloen anymore.
When we go first and open our houses and doors and messy playrooms to the wonder of friendship and hard days and break ups and stories that ache we grow braver, not smaller.
We grow stronger the longer we live out loud.
In the middle of the knowing each other day in and day out. Slowly. The boring days. The hard days. The homework days. The birthdays
The funerals and the heart aches.
The loss and the celebration.
When we do the dishes next to the neighbor who picked up our kids from soccer, we become. We become the best versions of ourselves because we lose ourselves in the stories of the woman standing next to us.
If we go first.
If we come out of hiding
If we open the door
If we say you look nothing like me and you are my sister.
You and you and you over there with the mismatched socks and life and dreams, because I am For you and I am with you and we are in this together.
YES! Love this stuff so much. The in-real-life, nitty-gritty, through the easy and the painful, community stuff. Well, I should clarify – I don’t ALWAYS love it. Sometimes it hurts my heart and sometimes I want to hide from it and sometimes I want to leave it and not come back. But ALWAYS–it is worth it. Always. Because HE is worth it. And all these precious hearts are worth it.
Thanks so much for this Lisa-Jo.
Yay! Love this topic! Perfect for your conference. Love the picture of everyone sitting writing together! Have a great time this weekend!
Lisa-Jo,
what a beautiful community you’ve created, along with Holley and the other women of Allume…I had trouble linking up today as I kept being taken to your free e-book offer…I already subscribe, but I thought if I did, it would let me link up, but it didn’t work…so here’s my link http://soulstops.com/post/2013/10/24/Five-Minute-Fridays-Together.aspx
Oops, fourth time was the charm…I was able to link up…Thanks, Lisa-Jo :)
Together
To get near another? An object, a friend, to get together with another. You would think it would be a together of like things, because to gather together non alike sometimes questions and causes conflict weather with people not agreeing or clashing. But in art gathering opposites sometimes brings out a sense of togetherness, even though different. We all can be different anyways as much as we are like, but behind the wide eyes and smirk smiles, and even under the gruff meanness of a hidden look, we are somewhat all together. In the same boat of life. A life of peace and of happiness, I mean who wants to think of the darkness of the air? But to deny its plausibility would deny reality, but we can focus on the hope of it all.
It’s hard to think sometimes that the true darkness together amongst us can be real sometimes in shadowed corners and behind broken eyes and hearts.
Oh how I long to find a balance and reach the wandering with the hope I see, the hope freely given and so easily obtained when we put aside our difference and reach inside and pull out the realities that set us the opposite of together, but apart. And lay it out on the hill. Under the down poor of love and rain of the brokenness who suffered the pain so we don’t have to. Then we can truly be together. Amongst a crowd of wanderers lost within the shuffle we can walk together in peace and focus on the hope so freely given and the faith of the tomorrow taken care of. Then we can enjoy the together here and now and not ad it’s the broken glass that was shard for me and you and not look back to become of the dust of the ground. But look ahead together to the beyond.
Lisa Jo,
I just want to tell you I look forward to Thursday nights so that I can be challenged and blessed by participating in five-minute Friday! I started blogging consistently exactly five Fridays ago after your link came through in my email. I have longed to write a blog and just couldn’t get off the dime to write. The “she” prompt did it for me. And, now I am writing and loving it! And even better, I have people telling me how my writing is encouraging them. God gives us a gift, we give it back to Him and He uses it for others. It just doesn’t get better. Thank you so much for facilitating this community and this process. I pray you are filled as you pour out.
I hope that one day I will be able to join you and write together. The vibe must be amazing!
I LOVE this: “we grow stronger the longer we live out loud”…so true and something that my children teach me every day. Great post.
Thank you so much for creating this community Lisa! its a true blessing. I hope that you have a great time at your conference this weekend!
Jessica
http://mybeautifulli.blogspot.com/2013/10/five-minute-friday-together.html
Together
After being separated for 8 weeks due to Air Force training, I thought my husband coming home would make the world right again. Our 16 week old was twice as old as when dad left. I thought in an instant my good sleeping baby and my sanity would return. I was dismayed that my little baby still continued to wake continually thought out the night, but the worst part was the my sanity was still lacking. Without communication, how could my husband know that I was dying inside and slowly losing my mind. As with most things, I erupted to let my frustration out. Now he knows the stress I’m under and the hurt that I feel. And I know that communication is the only way that we can bring ourselves back together again. Since last Friday, each day has been getting better and as the communication lines stay open, we grow closer and with less stress in my life somehow my baby is feeling it to as he has started to sleep a little better each night. Hoping as we are together again, life will get back on track.
I know what you mean…you’d think life would be better and easier but it presents added challenges. Hugs for you friend!
TOGETHER
GO
i USED to feel that i was alone, i was the only one who felt the way i felt, i was small and there was no one like me and no one who liked me. but that was because i stayed by myself, was afraid to reveal myself because everything was a secret, don’t tell anyone, it would be too embarassing and i could get in trouble. but i am a woman now and have opened up, either in person with other women in my community or reading the thoughts of other women also who at one time thought they were alone but after some courageous others opened up and let themselves by known, i found out i was not alone, I was together, am together, feel complete being together with others who feel similar to me, have gone through similar experiences and have figured it out by revealing themselves, their insides, to others, the only way to go, to safely reveal your aloneness, you become together, a satisfying feeling, not alone anymore!
STOP
Thanks Lisa-Jo :)
Hi Lisa,
Thank you for this Five Minute Friday. I also look every week to your website and I love to write. Today, I wrote very short but I think that should be fine. It’s my own writing anyway. I also write a daily blog post as I’ve also joined a blog challenge. Both are different and give different benefits.
Regards,
Raspal Seni
My Writer Site: http://raspalwrites.com
My Blog: http://raspalwrites.com/blog
My Tech Blog: http://easytechnicalblog.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/raspalwrites
Facebook: https://facebook.com/raspalwrites
My 1st time….Fun! http://teamcjh.blogspot.com/2013/10/five-minute-friday-together.html
Awesomeness is all I can say! =-D
Wow, I think these posts can’t get any better and they do! Beautiful!
May God bless you and all the women at the Allume Conference. Community is a precious gift.
Great topic this week! Thanks for hosting! :)
Together
Go
Together we sit in the waiting room. Anticipating. Hoping. Dreaming. Guessing.
Together we pray about the future. We dream up great big dreams of things to come – together.
Another piece of the puzzle – another branch on our tree.
Together we receive the news. We clap. We hug. We smile. We feel relief.
Together our hearts grow in leaps and bounds. Together we recognize the miracle.
We laugh. We are excited. Together we are bound by a new being.
A baby girl – a daughter, a grand-daughter, a great-granddaughter, a niece, a cousin – she is so much already.
Together we will help shape her life. We will love her and protect her. We will be her people and she will be one of ours.
My sister had a baby!
STOP
I can put together a puzzle and take it part.
I can’t put together the pieces of a broken dream, but I can build a new one.
Together we could build a world of our own making…… If only I could find you.
Independent of each other we search, sharing the dream of being together when the show is over and the lights go dim, hand in hand together well stand …….
http://retiredruth.wordpress.com/2013/10/25/five-minute-friday-together/
Together:
It’s the sweet, sweet time of hugging necks, kissing cheeks and looking deep into the eyes of those I’ve only virtually visited with since the last time we overcame the 700 miles between us.
We sit and feel each other close. We laugh and see the way our mouths take on the expression. We sneak glances just to take in the changes, the maturing that has happened when we weren’t able to be together.
The time goes by way too quickly and we know our paths will separate again. We will be thankful for Skype images and text messages that greet us by phone, tablet, computer or any other substitute-for-the-real-thing. Together will come again. We believe and wait.