When the group chat goes offline and gets together IRL
The importance of being part of a unique circle of friends.
We just clicked.
In 2018, I met a group of women who had all decided to give up alcohol for one reason or another. Those reasons would all be told over star-filled skies and hot tea later, but I don’t remember all the details. It’s not that each of our reasons didn’t matter; they did, but the collective nature of all of us having come together at that exact moment in time was a far greater, magical moment none of us could ignore. So it didn’t matter why; it only mattered that it happened.
While I have hosted multiple alcohol-free adventure retreats, no group has ever clicked the way that very first group clicked. It was, and remains, a wonderful mystery to all of us involved.
The places we have gone.
Over the last seven-plus years, we have continued to travel together. Sometimes in our entirety and sometimes just a few of us here and there. The group has met up in Baja, Ojai, Tucson, Texas, Sedona, New York, and now, just this past week, the PNW. This meet-up had me flying up to Seattle, jumping in a rental car, driving straight into the dense woods of Olympia, and parking right on the shore of the Puget Sound. The vacation home was owned by one of the ladies in our group, and it could not have been a sweeter place to hold our energy. The home was surrounded by thick trees, ferns, and moss everywhere the eye could see. The freshness in the air was nearly tear-evoking for this smog-invested city girl. In fact, as soon as I walked in and dropped my bags, I became a little emotional. Though it quickly passed as soon as someone started busting my balls about something. Our love language is 100% sister-esk love, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Trusting ourselves and each other.
We are not a group that talks non-stop or even a lot, but when any one of us needs something, we know we have a solid group of women waiting in the wings, ready and willing. And anytime we travel together, there is one rule: this is your trip. Everyone is invited, no one is pressured or expected to make it, and everyone is responsible for their own happiness. And we all trust ourselves and each other enough to speak up if something doesn’t feel right or a need is not being met. There is a connection between us that is unlike any other group of female friends I have. Again, I can’t put my finger on it, but it allows for, no, demands we all be open, honest, and vulnerable. And each time I meet up with these women, I feel more and more myself - the good, the bad, and apparently the neurotic :).
That’s the thing about going out on a ledge and finding an ecosystem of women with unique and similar interests. Had I not created The Sober Glow and had the balls to talk about how I chose to give up drinking, I would have never met these women (and the many, many more I have over the years). So any time anyone gives me shit about posting online or talking and writing about something they don’t understand or don’t ever want to understand, I get a little prickly.
Find your people.
So, dear reader, whether it’s around the topic of alcohol, or a certain genre of books, or whatever lifestyle you are living, you do not need permission to start sharing your story, your likes, your passions, your struggles, your choices, or your wins to the world - because when you do this, you will find your people. And one of the greatest gifts in life is finding your people!
