All My Sisters and Pete

Wow…..

So many words have already been said about the experience that is/was Listen To Your Mother Chicago 2016.

(See thoughts from Megan and Nina and Beth and Mollie)

I am not sure I can say everything I need to say because overwhelmed.

What an exhilarating experience! The entire experience was a roller coaster ride for me emotionally – from not thinking I was good enough to knowing I was good enough to being nervous about being on stage to wishing it wasn’t over.

It was amazing to me to see 12 people come together as framily from strangers in an afternoon. I didn’t know them before this journey began and now I cant imagine them not in my world.

Sharing personal stories seems simple to do for bloggers, as a lot of what we write is personal. But sharing our stories, in our actual voices, on a stage in front of total strangers (for the most part) is another thing all together. It sounds so simple on paper until the first rehearsal when you read your inner feelings out loud. I have never felt more naked, than I did at the first rehearsal. But it didn’t seem so bad once all the stories were read and we were all naked (sigh in the figurative sense, geesh get your minds out of the gutter…oh, I was here alone…never mind then lol)

By the second rehearsal we were all friends and it was refreshing to see each others faces. There was strength in our voices and power in our stances. We were ready.

And then it was May 1^st. THE day. Every single nervous feeling came flooding back. But I had all my sisters and Pete. It wasn’t as scary as I thought. Well, it was but I wasn’t alone and I wasn’t naked. I had the strength of my tribe holding me up when I wasn’t quite sure my legs could handle the job.

 

But as I looked out into the abyss that was the audience, and read my story out loud, I wasn’t naked (ha! see what I did there lol), I didn’t fall and I didn’t run. I was stronger than I thought.

It is now May 3^rd and I don’t quite understand how there isn’t another rehearsal on my calendar. I miss my tribe terribly but I know they are never more than an email or facebook post away.

I encourage you to think about motherhood and what it means to you….in all its gritty and messy glory. And then write it down. And then when the time comes, submit that story to your local Listen To Your Mother chapter. I promise you won’t be disappointed.