Hens and Chicks and I am not talking birds!!

Like I said I am not talking about the birds.  I am talking about us Ladies!!  I am talking about the diversity of women that enrich my life and hopefully yours as well.  Its a little difficult to write about personal relationships because I know the people I am writing about are reading this.  It is hard to tread gently on feelings when that is exactly what I wish to stir up.  We all have Hens in our lives that we look up to and learn from and we all have Chicks.  Young ladies who are just starting out or starting over, and they need us.  Women need each other to talk to, to listen to, and sometimes even to peck at each other.  How can anyone learn from my mistakes if I am to proud to put them out there, which is dumb because in this community every body knows everything anyway!!  What good is my success if it is only used to be boastful and not available as a tool for someone else to succeed as well. 

Opening up my life is hard but I will do it because I believe in the end result.  I know all the judgment and crap that gets stirred up when you "hang out your laundry" but its not the dirty stuff that I normally hang out!  Who would do that, its dumb!  I have washed it, patched it and now I am ready to put it out in the fresh air!  The trend of leaving it all stinky, in a basket, and stashed away somewhere won't work.  Bring that shit out and sort it!!  Get rid of some of it, give back the stuff that doesn't belong to you, donate what you are just tired of, and clean up the rest. 

Lesson # 1 to the Chicks, don't let the laundry pile up!  One of my moms lessons to me has always been to sort it!!!  Its never as bad as it seems. 

My goal over the next few weeks is to address some of the things that I have "experienced" and also some of the things going on around me right now. 

Talking to my mom this morning she mentioned how she came to this community knowing absolutely no one.  She talks about how her sisters-in-law and the wives of my dads friends welcomed her and some of them became her very lifelines. She describes how much she and the ladies from church valued their time together just chatting over coffee.  Also, the importance of the emotional connection that she still has with these same women after years of life's trials and tribulations. 

The young women of today are missing so much of that.  Texting does not establish lasting friendships.  Facebook can only provide a connection with people who you may or may not address when you pass them on the street, WEIRD!!  Sitting across a table at lunch, at a kitchen table for wine and conversation, or even a bar for drinks, that is friendship!  Drinking ice tea while the kids play OUTSIDE, that is how its done.  When some of these young ladies come seem me, I hardly get a word in, and it makes me laugh a little.  They don't even know how much they need to talk things out.  How much they need to just sit on the couch and have someone listen to their "stuff".  It doesn't matter to me what it is.  What matters is that I stop what I am doing and listen.  Oh sometimes they get a lecture, sometimes we don't agree, and sometimes they leave mad, but that's what its all about. 

At my age I also have Hens in my life.  Ladies that mean the world to me.  Ladies that have kept me moving forward when I didn't think I could take one more step.  Ladies who told me I wasn't crazy when we all knew I was definitely crazy!!  They have given advice on meeting men, leaving men, raising children, money, cooking, working, not working, and just everything that happens in the life of being a woman. 

So my point for today after all of this rambling is..... welcome in a Chick, or stop by and visit an old Hen.  Make a face to face connection with someone today.  Call your grandma, snap chat your niece, call your mom for a date, take an old/new friend to lunch, or you can even comment on this post!  Just put yourself out there, I PROMISE someone would love to talk to you today!! 

Rock on Ladies!