The Journey Inward

Not long after my mom passed away, I felt an urge to commit myself to writing and began an almost daily ritual of doing so. I also knew I wanted to share this passion with other women, so one day over lunch at my house, I told my friend Katie about my plan to start a business. She held out her phone to me and showed me a video of a finished basement. Confused, and thinking we were doing some sort of parallel share, she told me, “This is your space.”

I started my business two months later, and my writers and I gathered in the basement of the building she owned and in which she ran her therapy business. For nearly a year, I ran my sessions down there.

The business became something unexpected, but more fulfilling than anything I had dared to imagine. It became a group of women who met on Thursday nights in my family room, snuggled together on couches, drinking tea. Our sessions began in the kitchen with the tea of the night, as well as various decaffeinated choices. We would catch up on our week there.

Moving into the family room, we would take about seven minutes to write about anything on our hearts and minds. We would then share a word or a sentence or an idea or the whole piece. Most often the whole piece. And that is how we became each other’s greatest supporters, trusted confidantes, and close friends. As Stacey said, we aligned our cheerleading to each other’s goals. From there, we would move to the topic of the night, discussing it and writing about it and sharing some more. Sometimes there were snacks and treats (usually from Lydia or Barb), sometimes we ate dinner together, and sometimes we would go for walks.

These women on Thursday nights became such a highlight of my week. After putting it to a vote, we chose our name, Writefully Hers. On our last night together, I gave them just one word to reflect on. It was the word coffee, an idea my friend Carol gave me. Interestingly enough, when we shared out, three of us had written stories about our dads and our introduction to coffee through them.

But the ladies surprised me that night. Instead of sharing about coffee, they had each brought a piece of writing to share about me and about this group. The tears flowed and my heart ached. We all knew what a special thing we had going.

The ladies will continue to meet and we will all join together as time and time zones allow! We spent one last day together on Saturday, shopping through town and laughing and sipping. No writing, few tears, just a day full of beautiful memories that I take with me in my heart.