Gratitude, Just Being Me, Coffee Break
Coffee Break 3
Sorry fellas, but this one’s for the women.
Well, okay; you can listen too, I suppose.
But just to warn you, it’s touchy-feely. It’s only about 60 seconds, but that might be 60 seconds too much for you. 
Being There, with Sue Monk Kidd.
[Edited to add: If the link doesn’t open for you, here is Sue Monk Kidd to your heart’s content!]
02 May 2008 gabrielle
Dang, girl..where’s the tissue box? As I’ve long whined, I am an “only child.” To have woken up with 3 other gals in a motel room in Ontario one long weekend a few years back, to be singing in the van on the way to the 4th’s house, and for the 5 of us to be praying in downtown Toronto for the one who was too sick to come and who had taken a turn for the worse, and to pray the rosary as one all the way back to the house in Hamilton.. it truly was one of the greatest thrills and joys of my life. How lucky are you who have sisters and brothers.
(And it’s probably because I’m an only child that I woke up doing a Mae West impression. See? People need sisters and brothers. You young parents considering having only one child — let this be a lesson to ya.)
But indeed, amen. Women need to tell their stories, to be heard, and to be validated. Men do, too. And it made me wonder to whom Mary told her story, after she left Elizabeth’s house that day. It might well have been something she kept unto herself.. And what a Story was hers, the poor blessed lass. Perhaps, tho’, she told it to the Magdalen. I hope so.
Never a truer word could be said than that I would be lost without you girls.
i am so bummed because i can’t get this to open. i know i would love it because sue monk kidd has really been resonating with me lately. if you have any ideas on how/where i might find this little video, i would love to know!
take care.
C.O., you see how well women understand each other? I don’t even have to ask you how it is that you “woke up in a motel room with three women.”
And I agree; men have their stories too, and they need to share them and receive validation. Even if we have to force them. 
Lucy, edited for you, dear one. I love her too.
Wow, I didn’t realize how odd that may sound! That first night was party time; a while after hilarious aperitifs and a pound of chocolates each, our collective stomach ordered in some pizza. We tried to tell our story to the two delivery guys (safety in numbers..) which spooked them badly. They hugged the door, “Ladies, if you don’t have the money, just say so! Please!” (I would love to hear those pizza guys’ story.)
Women, women, women! Yes, yes, yes! And that is not for one minute to take away from the men, but women have some sort of built-in device to do with sensitivity and need and tact and decorum and dignity and respect…..need I say more? ? Thank you, Gabrielle! A cappucchino will do fine!
Ah, “decorum.” My middle name.
Women are the nurturers, as opposed to the hunter-gatherers. As such, we take on Godly/Marian co-creative burdens of worry, fear, joy, exhaustion.. we ponder, plan, nudge, arrange, hope, wait, pray.. and worry. We aren’t debriefed often enough. Sometimes all it takes to erase months of wall-to-wall agonizing or worry, is some lovely woman referring to me, with love, as a ‘numbskull.’
Women are terrific. As 4 of us sprawled in Adirondack chairs around the motel pool one sunny morn after a swim (and/or cannonballs..), we just looked at each other in this moment, and smiled. There was no need for words, and we knew it.
“Being there.” Amen.
I believe what she says is true. My very dearest friends have shared disappointments and dreams, laughter and tears, and though we live many miles away from each other now I find they are just as close to me in prayer as I think about them that way everyday. I would share this of my post I wrote nearly a year ago, I guess because I was missing your visits. I share it with you now. (A Bit of the Blarney: The Gift of Friendship, May5, 2007.) Thank you so much for reminding me again how very important they are to me.
This stirs up.
Well now, I must say, Ann, that tact and decorum are not always my strong points, but I can tell from reading your comments these many months that they are certainly yours! I had to laugh at NS’s statement that women aren’t “debriefed” often enough! And Cathy, I don’t think I knew you a year ago (but then again, the months fly by so quickly that maybe I did) but I’m going to go and read your post from last year to see what I missed (or don’t remember). Laure, stirs up emotions? Memories?
I like what Sue Monk Kidd said at the end, about women “listening each other into being”.