I spent all night sitting outside chatting with friends. These ladies live far away and the opportunity for this sudden all night chat fest was a surprise I almost didn't take advantage of.
Because I don't usually stay out all night I knew it would make my family feel weird. And also because I knew I'd be sleepy today I'd risk being cranky.
But because I'm comfortable with weird and okay with cranky, and so are my friends, the three of us stayed up all night!
Sitting outside at an undisclosed location (a friend's driveway) we started off reminiscing and updating each other on our families. As the night wore on we dug deeper, carefully introducing our fears and scars to each other in the moonlight, and offering each other soft friendly advice. The three of us answered our husbands' consistent calls of concern, all of them worried and confused at what we could still be gabbing about as the hours wore on. And as night turned to early morning, nocturnal sounds giving way to the morning shift, we kept chatting. Sharing the answers of the universe, the equation for world peace, and the truth of all existence. If our husbands only knew!!
Of course, we were far too giddy with fatigue to write all of it down. I'm pretty sure we can't remember all of the life shifting globally healing answers we discovered last night. And now that I think about it, perhaps it was the mix of moonlight and blurry eyed sleepiness that made us so sure of our profound existence. But boy, were we sure!
One of the topics that we explored together was discovering ourselves now that our children are growing older. All of us women are moms, and we all have children with different mental health issues. We all, also, spent so many years identifying as "mom" that letting our children push away from us meant exploring who we were and who we wanted to be: as women.
And as we chatted, as women, we shared and touched on beautiful and surprising things. It was beautiful and surprising!
Finally, as the sun came up, babies stirred in their beds, and husbands began to fear for our sanity, we said our goodbyes and made promises to do it all again in a year or two.
We are tired today, and we all have work to do.
And it's wonderful!
I hope the universe conspires to offer you such delicious moments, friends! Surprise nuggets of delight that leave you sleepy and nourished and happy!
Remember, in the morning there's always coffee!!
Happy Monday, friends!!
Hugs, smiles, and love!!!
Autism Answers with Tsara Shelton (Facebook)
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| Sipping coffee the morning after! |
