I have a new sisterhood, its name is book club.
In all my comings and goings over the years, I have been associated (loosley or otherwise), with many different groups of women. And with the exception of my one or two very close friends, I have put on a ridiculous show for all of them. I have worn masks and clown make-up, dressed up and put on costumes and done many, many tap dances, all in the name of being whoever those people around me needed me to be. This summer for the first time. I am in a group with women who just want to be real. All of us. With all of our unadulterated ugliness. Many a week I drag myself to book club, only to find that somewhere in the few hours I spend with these women, a weight is lifted from me.....Then today it hit me. This is what the Bible is talking about when it says to bear each others burdens! Take each others pain as our own, climb into a pity party mud hole, sit among the ashes together and tend each others wounds. There is an amazing healing that begins to take place when we are willing to speak the truth about a situation in our lives, instead of pretending our life is perfect. My friend put it best when she said, "When you speak something it makes it real, when it is real you have to deal with it."
The funny thing about this group of women, is that from the outside we don't look like a group that would mesh at all! Different family and religious backgrounds. A span of ages that includes a couple of decades. No socioeconomic comparison. It really should not be working, but it is and it is miraculous in its ability to do so.
God knows where I've been and where I'm not sure I'll ever come back from. But He also knew exactly what this group of women needed at this point in time....and He honored our need. All it took was a desperate group of worn-out women, sick of playing the games and ready to get real, whether it gained us friends or not, and what it did was gain us a sisterhood, called book club.
Oh yeah, we occasionally talk about a good book too.
