I decided to throw a party for women and call it a conference, and my life hasn't been the same since.
The idea was a girls party that would bring women together that usually don't have time for such things as parties, fun, or doing the stuff ladies day dream about but never indulge in because there's too much laundry, not enough money, deadlines at work, husbands or kids needs... you know, the ladies who fall into bed every night around 11pm, utterly exhausted, but can't fall asleep til 1am cuz the mind won't stop reeling? Yep, I am one of those ladies and I really, REALLY needed a party... umm, I mean a conference.
Today, as I write this, I'm still in the planning phase of this amazing party-conference, but already I am seeing - and reaping! - the benefits of this endeavor. I'm experiencing the joy of something I completely didn't expect... friendship. You see, a person cannot simply create a conference for hundreds of women all by herself, she has to have ALOT of help, people willing to surround her and catch the vision and join together to make it happen. At first I was scared - guess this can't happen, guess I'll have to wait for someone else to do it, guess I'm too little, hmmmm....
Once I squished THAT train of thought, I began to pray. If I'm not the only one who needs a weekend event like this, than You are going to have to help me, Lord, show me what to do.
And, surprisingly fast, He did... in the form of friendships. As I started reaching out, I began forming bonds with people in a deep and meaningful way. Having conversations in which we share the most inspiring, sensitive, tragic, and overcoming situations in our lives. At some point in each conversation, it stops being about helping to put together a conference, and instead it becomes two people enjoying each others company, lifting each other up, and joining together to do something fun and life-changing. I realized quickly that "I" am not putting this conference together... "WE" are. Women and men alike are putting aside their schedules, their convenience, and sometimes their wallet, in order to join together to impact lives for Christ. It's been nothing short of a God-moment, a tornado of love, friendship, and excitement that is blowing me away everyday, every time I pick up the phone or walk into a cafe for a meeting. In fact, I've started calling this phenomenon the "collision of friendship".
A month away from this event and I am sitting here amazed, confounded (though obviously not speechless! lol), and so grateful. I have learned a lot about friendship these past months, and I think I knew it already, but had forgotten some things - how to make friends, how to be a friend, how to be vulnerable, how to let someone else be vulnerable with me. We do not "find" a friend, we must simply BE a friend - if we can do that, we will discover ourselves sweetly surrounded by them in a collision of friendship.
It's as easy as making the time, picking up the phone, being yourself, sharing your heart, and then sitting quietly to listen to someone else's... I truly hope that lives are impacted at this conference that I and about 45 of my new-found friends are planning, but my greatest desire is that each woman who comes will experience what this conference has already done for me: that each woman will form a bond with another woman, will create friendships that change the world - starting with their own.
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