The other night I found myself looking around the room at a group of wonderful women who I am blessed to call friends (minus some faces who were not able to be there physically but were very much present in our thoughts). As I sat there, in what was hopefully the first of many such gatherings, I contemplated what it would be like to travel through life together as a group of friends. In fact, we have already travelled a great deal together. All four of us in the room that evening have had the same job, albeit at different times: we have all cooked on a SALTS ship. We have also all sailed with each other, though, again, not all at the same time. There is a special bond that sailors, past and present, share and this common experience has bonded us more than I think I (we?) realized before the other night.

The idea was planted at a recent birthday celebration when someone innocently suggested that we should do this more often. When you have friends, who needs a reason to get together? What has evolved in just a short time is a place where we are not afraid to share what is really going on in our hearts and lives and where we can trust each other enough to help, in love, to think through the very real issues we face. It is a place where we can draw on each other’s experiences learn from each other’s journeys. It is a place of love, trust, fellowship, and safety. It is Community. I am happy to belong.

The end of classes was heralded with much excitement and fanfare on my part. Foolishly, I thought that would mean I would have more time at my disposal. Apparently working five days a week actually is more time consuming. I feel like I haven’t had any time at home to do things like vegetate in front of my computer. It is quite tragic, really; not only has my online posting suffered, but I have fallen behind in my reading (opening Google Reader causes much fear and trepidation on my part as too many unread items is stress inducing). Never fear, I have still been thinking and while I am about to drive out to Colwood to work in our office out there for the day, I will continue to think and ponder. I have been blessed to have been a part of some stimulating conversations over the last few days as well and am still processing them. Until then, happy Thursday and second-to-last-day of my work week!