All the times, that we messed up".
- Halestorm
***
I was going to name this post "Back to the Future" in honor of the time capsule that we opened last night, but I have been having so much fun picking song lyrics out for my book posts, that I decided to keep it up.
This song is from a band called Halestorm, who opened for Shinedown some years ago and now leads shows of their own. The star is Lzzy Hale who defines rockstar more than Joan Jett, and has a piercing voice that can hit notes completely off the charts. "Here's to us" was our song a few Christmases ago as we all raised our glasses and belted out the words.
***
There was something different this year at our Annual Girls Christmas party, and maybe that something different was me, or maybe we all felt it.
13 years ago, we created a time capsule and we all brought something (or somethings apparently because there was far more in there than I thought) and placed it inside a container to be locked up indefinitely.
As we sat around in a circle and the items started to be pulled from this container, I was asked if I felt nostalgic at the moment. Right away I said no, because at the time, it was a reminder of some of the years I wasn't present or I had missed out on things and I re-felt some of those feelings all over again. But as the night went on and I watched all around the room, I felt overwhelmed with how lucky we all were to be standing in that room.
Each one of us, (and some who no longer attend), were part of a different era or evolution of our lives. We are connected by our own individual uniqueness and the group dynamics change by every addition or subtraction into that circle.
We are drawn to others by our similar circumstances, by similarities or by differences in our personalities, by certain seasons in our life, and some relationships that are new and only forming now.
We've seen each other through heartaches, hangovers, crumbling grief of loved ones, triumphs and failures, families being created and children growing up.
In essence, we've supported each other in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer and for better or for worse.
This morning, I went to hug everyone in the room before I left and one of my friends said "Sarah, you are giving the best hugs lately."
Aw, how amazing is that?!
My appreciation and gratitude for this group of women who knows me better than I know myself, who puts little love hearts on my blog posts and sends encouraging words, who lights up my day with the magic words, "When can we get together??"- is overflowing from my heart today.
It's not lost on me that one day, one Christmas, there may be a missing member from this group. That one of us will move on to whatever is waiting for us past this physical world and we will be raising our glasses once again to remember them.
The song continues with the verse -
"Stuck it out this far together
Put our dreams through the shredder
Let's toast 'cause things got better
And everything could change like that
And all these years go by so fast
But nothing last forever"
Each Christmas, I have a deeper fulfillment from this one night we all get together. A gratitude that cannot be explained for how special it is to be surrounded by this incredible group of women I've grown up with and spent 27 years of my life.
My hugs will only get stronger as we age as I cherish every moment we have had and have left.
Here's to us.
Merry Christmas, my beautiful friends.
I love you.
💜
