I spoke to a group of 50 women, young women, last night. The High Point Junior League's monthly meeting. I felt like I could put my arms around each one of them and truly wanted to. Jillian, my daughter, turned 30 in December, and like I told these young women, I wasn't able to hug her on her 30th birthday. Looking at all of those beautiful faces last night made me miss her terribly. It's strange, I was one of them ... once. Several in the crowd were very pregnant. All of them ... just beginning their lives with husbands, new jobs, careers, new mommies, new homes, life for most of these twenty and thirty-year old women is really ... just beginning.
My speech, Coming Out Of The Dark And Into The Life Of A Writer, was tailored more toward what happens as you grow older and you need to reinvent your life. If that time should come, and for some it definitely will, they'll need to dig deep for courage. And, I wanted them to feel even more grateful than, I'm sure, they already do for the blessings in their lives. I gave it to them straight.
Themes of religion run through everything I write, everything I do, and when I speak publicly, the topic of faith touches people on levels like nothing else.
The reception was tremendous, the Q&A great fun, and I have to say ... I think these girls got it. Though many of them probably could not relate to some of it, they opened their hearts and you could hear a pin drop, they were listening.
Life is not all about fun and games. Although, I love a good laugh. It's why I read Dena's blog every morning. But these young women are embarking on lives that over time are going to change. In ten to twenty years, some of them may not even recognize themselves from the person they were last night. We don't know how the course of our lives will change in just the blink of an eye.
And so my mission last night was to drop a seed. A seed of hope and light into these young women's hearts and minds, so that when the rain falls, the dark times come, they find the thorn on their rose ... they might recall something I said to give them the ounce more courage they'll need to make it through.
As for me, I hate messages of doom and gloom. But I'm also one for speaking the truth and talking about real life. Real life, to me, is all about this one scripture ... Matthew 5:45 …for He maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust." Baby, it falls where it falls. No one deserves it. It’s just the way of things.
I pray Jesus bless the Junior League and that every one of those precious girls lives their life out with NO bumps in their road. But every "Steel Magnolia" knows ... that which does not kill us, makes us stronger.
The Junior League surprised me. They're not a bunch of debutantes that get together just to gossip and show off. These days, they're real young women on a mission ... to make their world a better place to raise their children, setting examples for others to follow, and listening to old broads like me talk about life.
God bless the Junior League.
Blessings to you and yours.
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