Good morning…
Her family is taking new form this holiday season as she experiences the two sided coin of her recent divorce. Old fears and new freedoms. Old hurts and new hopes. Old memories and new meaning. Though we are unable to gather in our living room for our weekly class, we walk and talk privately, regularly, with our dogs by our sides. I am amazed at our resilience, our mutually beneficial friendship, and the Spirit of God rising up to guide our steps.
After we finished our walk and talk this week, she texted me these life-giving words.
GIRLFRIENDS
In an evening class at Stanford University the last lecture was on the mind-body connection – the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman; whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends.
At first, everyone laughed, but he was serious. Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically this quality “girlfriend time” helps us to create more serotonin – a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well being. Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. We share from our souls with our sisters, friends, and evidently that is VERY GOOD for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym.
There’s a tendency to think that when we are “exercising” we are doing something good for our bodies; but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged. Not true. In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking! So every time you hang out to schmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health! We are indeed very, very blessed!
So let’s toast to our friendship with our girlfriends (inc. grandmas, sisters, mothers, nieces, cousins, aunties…). Evidently it’s very good for our health. Thanks to all the women in my life who have helped me stay healthy, and feeling very loved – including you!!!
Again, I smiled at the resilience, the mutual benefit, the Spirit of God rising up to guide our steps. Then the surround sound from the Spirit grew even stronger, loud and clear. Surfing on the exact same wavelength, in less than twenty-four hours I received the following email from a vivacious friend in our longstanding Northside Church Writers Group.
Dear Writing Sisters,
Awoke this am to beautiful blogs from Sue and Marcia in my inbox! Lovely and inspiring! And you won’t believe it my wonderful, dear friends, but my book is FINALLY complete thanks to all your wonderful support!! I am tickled pink of course and so grateful for all of you who believed in me—even though at times it seemed it might never happen!
I haven’t gotten the first copy in my hot little hands yet, but it is available on Amazon and my order says I will get it on the 23rd! How funny I had to order it from Amazon to get a copy!!
Anyway, in two weeks I will have lots of copies to share and will look forward to a personalized launch and marketing plan at the first of the year! For now, my heart is just filled with gratitude and happiness that this message–on God’s timeline–is ready for distribution! And with the 2020 we have had, there never was a better time for the message of love and joy through connection!
Hugs to all for a warm and wonderful holiday season with your families! I would love to schedule a zoom with all of you after the first of the year so we can catch up!!
Love and hugs!
Karen
Here is the link:
I think God is up to something really, really big, as side-by-side our feet are guided through this worldwide pandemic, through the process of grieving everyone and everything we have lost, through the ugly political polarization to a place of real reconciliation. Friendship matters to our health, to our healing, to the wholeness God is gradually waking up inside and around us.
A friend loves at all times. They are there to help when trouble comes (Proverbs 17:17, NIRV).
…Sue…
