Coffee, anyone?

There are so many hard, horrific and ugly things happening in our country right now. The world really.  And my empathy ways really struggle with the weight of all of that darkness and brokenness....not to mention my own personal concerns and worries.

But this morning, I set aside time for a 'coffee clutch' with some friends at a library in Milwaukee.  It was kind of an extension of BLOOM, my kind of new ministry....but it was also just an extension of my desire to be with women.

You know how many of us are always trying to catch up with so and so for coffee or lunch or just a few minutes to talk and laugh and cry and share...but there never seems to be time. Or that one moment you do have free, you either want to spend it alone or if you do make plans-then you're leaving someone out??  Now that my weekends (unless I'm in Minnesota) are relatively free...I thought I'm just going to create the space for a few friends to get together and be.  So I reserved a room at a library (free and easy and all over the city) and then invited a few people.

And as I was driving home this afternoon and reflecting on my morning.

I felt peace.

Because for 2 and a half hours, 8 women with a lot and with nothing in common drank coffee and juice, ate grapes and sweets and laughed and cried and prayed and just....were.

All different.
Different ages.
Different colors.
Different zip codes.
Different stories.

But it didn't matter because there was common ground.

The need and desire to have a moment to just be.

And we could.
Be heard.
Be understood.
Be cared for.
Be loved.

There doesn't always have to be an agenda, a cause.  Because sometimes we just need to look around us, at who God has placed in front of us and then begin a relationship.  We don't even need to know what the outcome of the relationship will be.  We might just be casual acquaintances or we might become super close confidants.  We might be able to help each other out of jams and connect each other with resources that we need or we might just send up a quick prayer.

Today I laughed, cried, hugged and prayed because I was at a table with 7 other women who decided that they were going to set aside time and be intentional about relationship and it didn't matter that we don't look alike, live alike or love alike.

It just mattered that we were.  And in the midst of all hard, horrific and ugly things....

My soul is content.

That's what I've got today.