A League of Our Own

I'm having some performance anxiety this morning so please bear with me. Its been a long, long while since I've sat at the keyboard and although I have so much I want to say, I'm a little rusty and a little out of practice but here it goes ...

About a month ago I planned a little dinner party and invited some of the most amazing women I know. I was halfway through my treatments, feeling a little tired and down, and I knew another dose of My People was just the thing. We (my sister was a massive help, as always)  made a reservation, invited everyone to don their favourite hat or fascinator and join us for a girls night out. I called our little group The League of Extremely Fascinating Women.

That night women of different ages, backgrounds and walks of life came together, mingled, chatted and encouraged one another. I was amazed by how eager everyone was for a girls night, how open everyone was to meeting new people and how easily the conversation flowed. I laughed harder than I had in ages and was more encouraged in those few short hours than I thought possible.

Driving home after dinner that night I had a couple of IGIMs ('I Got It Moments') that took me by surprise. We all make assumptions about one another and usually those judgement calls have us thinking that everyone else has their stuff together, is happier or is more popular. Planning that girls' night out opened my eyes to a few truths that are pretty universal for women ... at least I think so.

Every women wants a place to belong, a group of women to hang out with, to be included but very few women are willing to risk planning an event for fear of no one showing up. When I sent out the invites for that dinner I was surprised by how many women jumped at the chance to get out of the house and hang out with other women. There were women who I invited thinking that they were going to be too busy with their fabulous life, family and friends to accept an invite for dinner from me but there they were, sitting at the table with us, thanking me for thinking of them. Who knew that we all feel lonely and disconnected sometimes ... maybe 'sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name and they're always glad you came' after all.

Every women has a story, life lessons to share and encouragement to give. I didn't want this night out to be just a dine and dash event, I wanted it to mean something more. so in the week before the dinner I started making cards, one for each women who was attending our girls night. I left the cards blank and at the dinner I asked each women to write a little note of encouragement and then I collected the cards, shuffled them up and handed them out again. My hope was that each women would walk away with a little piece of goodness that would life their spirits a little. In the week that followed I received several emails from women who said that the card they received was exactly what they needed to hear or that they ended up having a conversation with someone who totally encouraged them. Mission accomplished!

Every women needs to have the opportunity to connect with other women, to be encouraged, supported, inspired and to have a few laughs. In the weeks since that girls night out I have really felt like all of us need a place to learn, grow and laugh. We all need People who will have our back and kick us in the butt. We all need a place to belong.

So I made a place.

Today I created a place on Facebook. I started a group called The League of Extremely Fascinating Women. This is a place of encouragement, sisterhood and fun. This is a place to be awesome. This is a place to be fabulous. This is a place to be the person you were always meant to be and to encourage others to be the fascinating person they are meant to be.  Hats required, fascinators encouraged!

This is an open group so please join, invite others to join. Periodically, I'll post questions or create an event and I invite you to share quotes, messages or pictures that are encouraging, inspiring and life giving. This is our place, this is a League of our own.

Help one another, is part of the religion of sisterhood. ~Louisa May Alcott