Room For Change: Open Your Home, Open Your Heart

OPEN YOUR HEART

Within a few months of my husband's death I was sitting in counseling, reviewing my life, rethinking my future and rebelling in the future prospects.

My counselor suggested that my social circle would no longer be "corporate" entertaining nor logistics with teenage daughters and their networking.  What then?   She commented that my circle would be women.   I cried, I cursed, I cringed.   Hadn't the rug already been pulled out from under me and now another own shoved underneath without the welcome mat?

She was right.  I was willing to try.

A friend  of mine was turning 50 years old.  She , like myself, had friends that had never met each other.   Friends that were gardeners.  Friends that were dog people and animal recusers. Friends that shared in her jewerly making  and church friends.   

I invited them all for a "sleep over" as I lived deep in the woods at that time.   My friend, Judy, was the common bond.  We had heard about each other but seldom crossed each other paths except by Judy's stories.   We shared a meal, shared stories, shared some dancing and laughing.  We shared our lives and slept under the same roof that night.  The next morning another woman joined us for breakfast and the circle widened.

A tradition was started that evening as well.  I had a fireplace surfaced with river rocks.  I had written in chalk on the rocks, " Happy Birthday, Judy!"  Others suggested what else could be written up there and the  

tradition bloomed.   Whenever someone spent the night , they were honored with a piece of chalk to write what they wanted on the river rocks and it stayed for others to enjoy and ponder.   

The quotes spread on the wall and everyone who spent the night, left a bit of themselves behind with me.

So my counselor was right.  My social networking started with a birthday party for a good friend and ended by making more great friends.   

In loss there is always a gain.   In darkness light filters through.  In your opening your home to others your heart gets a chance to open again, even if in a small way.

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you willing to open your heart and home again and again.

Blessings.  Susan