Back Home from a Healthy and Hope-filled Trip

Sorry for the silence around here. I’d planned to blog daily while on the road but chose to rest instead.

This was by far the healthiest trip I’ve ever taken. I adjusted to Eastern time during the week prior to leaving so that I was alert at fully present during all meetings (vs. exhausted and desperate to get to bed.)

I exercised each morning, keeping my chronic pain issues to a minimum (vs. major back pain from being crammed in a plane seat and then sitting in meetings all day.)

I felt admiration and excitement for the other women and their amazing ideas, insights, projects, gifts, and talents.

But I can honestly say that I did not feel envy. 

Which is huge, as jealousy has been a life-long battle for me…alway accompanied by a barrage of negative comparative self-talk about how my clothes, shoes, hair, make-up, face, body, nails, voice, gestures, etc. don’t “measure up” to someone else’s.

For once, I did not want to be anyone else or even “be just like” anyone else.

The more excited I got for other women, the more excited I got about just being me.  And did I ever learn a TON about how to become the woman God is calling me to be!

I had expected to be reminded of my past and focused on all the work I need to be doing in my present to “fix” my past.One of the most memorable moments for me was in the prayer room at She Speaks. I was profoundly moved to find which name of God held my name. 

Instead, I was reminded that God knows my past, He has taken care of my past, and I am free to enjoy what He’s creating in my present!

I keep hearing and experiencing Romans 15:13:

May the God of hope 

fill you with all joy and peace 

as you trust in Him

that you may overflow with hope 

by the power of the Holy Spirit.”