Lifting up

This weekend I flew 495 miles south to San Diego, drove 68 miles north to Murrieta to spend a delightful day with two dear friends from college.  I would have driven exponentially farther, and  flown multiple times that amount to be with these two.  These women are some of the most intelligent, warm, open, thoughtful, challenging, successful, witty, beautiful, strong, faithful women I know and I feel incredibly blessed that we have been such friends for the better part of 8 years.  When we met, I hadn't a clue that we would become so fabulously close in such a short amount of time.  We were tossed together when each of us, coming from our own varied paths in life, joined the class of 2009 Masters of Management program at University of Redlands.  Life had led us to that classroom in 2007, and our worlds were so beautifully changed because of that choice.  Not just in terms of our own trajectory of our lives (which were astonishingly perfectly steering us to the next phase in our lives) but because the intersection of the three of us was such a catalyst for a deep and meaningful friendship that is stronger today than it has ever been.

We started our day with a lovely drive to this winery in Temecula Wine Country that my friend is a member of to enjoy a full five tastings of their wine, then a wonderful lunch of grilled chicken and then off to another winery a few miles away for some Sangria.  Our conversations canvassed all sorts of topics; men, career, politics, passions, travel, US Citizenship, family, relationships, religion and hobbies to name a few.  It was such a blessing to be in the company of such beautiful women who showed up in each and every conversation with full presence and full hearts. Our conversations were thoughtful, enriching and uplifting.  The love and full support that I felt from both of them all day and on into the night no matter what we talked about was strong and unwavering - regardless if we disagreed or not.  It is truly powerful when people can come together and lift each other up to soar even higher and even brighter.  Women do not often experience such full scale support from other women because of a variety of reasons - but when a group like ours comes together, it truly is a magical heart filling experience.   We ended our night with our hearts overflowing with love, minds buzzing with a euphoric high of such amazing magnificence, and smiles so big the cheshire cat would be jealous.  It was an outstanding lovely experience that I am overjoyed to have been able to have.  Worth every second.