“We're connected, as women. It's like a spiderweb. If one part of that web vibrates, if there's trouble, we all know it, but most of the time we're just too scared, or selfish, or insecure to help. But if we don't help each other, who will?”
― The Peach Keeper
It is so common for women to gather (think how many times you have taken girlfriends with you to the bathroom). We will find a way. We are drawn to each other. We crave the company of our sisterfriends. We need them because, with other women, you do not have to say too much because they can all read between the lines. We crave being able to relate to other women and to have other women relate to us. It keeps us whole.
It is difficult to find ways to gather in today's hustle and bustle. Siem of us are getting elderly and it is more difficult to find women to gather with. (I am grateful for the internet). Some of us do not go to bars, d not go to church, so where can we gather? I learned to find friends in a hurry, go to your small town bingo. I have some fabulous friends and we meet once a week to share treats, talk, and play bingo. It is a cheap night out and it fills in time, and it is just good to get around other women.
It is important to gather because we are nurturing human beings and we are only filled with a sense of belonging, of being of service, when we gather with friends. The best thing about nurturing others is that it nurtures our self as we do so. Being with good girl friends keeps us from that looming sense of being alone. We are, eventually, going to really be alone and if we nurture friends and nurture our self, we have that reserve of compassion and caring waiting for us for the times we need it. Sometimes, when I am full of nerve pain, near to wishing to die, it helps to have someone you can call up and just tell someone else how much it hurts... yes, we need those friends we gather with, to support us when we need it. And visa versa, of course.
We do not have to justify our getting together to anyone.. it has to be a normal part of our life. Sister friends have always gathered, sometimes around the open campfire, sometimes over a potbelly stove, over a restaurant meal, at sewing circles, bingo, book clubs. We do not need to seek how to gather, we just seem to make a way to do it.
For my art journal, I have made another sticky backed craft foam stamp. I have used this simple stamp in many different ways, as you have seen, and will see again. Our final art journal challenge for September is to create a stamp that portrays friendship amongst your own tribe of women you call friends.
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