Ever since the book came out, I've received feedback about how it's made women think about friendships throughout their lives, as well as who is in their lives now. The goal of this blog is to open up and create a dialogue about friendships: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Each week I will post my thoughts, experiences, as well as various articles, topics or quotes that I feel are important when examining female friendships. Please feel free to leave comments; I look forward to hearing from you!

Email me: survivingfemalefriendships@gmail.com

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Monday, March 18, 2013

Author's Luncheon

I was given an exciting opportunity last Tuesday to attend an author's luncheon at the Silverleaf Club in Scottsdale, AZ where I discussed the book with about 15 women.  Questions ranged from how to handle the changing nature of friendships as we get older to how to model healthy relationships to our daughters; the questions sparked interesting conversations and topics about female friendship. 

What I enjoyed most about the afternoon was watching these women interact.  Many of the women came with a few friends, so they looked happy as they were laughing and catching up with each other.  One of the women brought her friend from out of town who is currently staying with her, and they discussed their 40+ years of friendship history.  It was beautiful and heartwarming to witness these real-life friendships, and ones that seemed to pick up without a hitch.

Another interesting part of the luncheon was when a woman asked about how to handle those friends who drain you, and don't get the hint that the friendship isn't working.  This woman coined the term "emotional vampires" - which I absolutely loved and had to share such a funny, yet true term.  She mentioned how these emotional vampires suck the life right out of you.  It's a hard dance when someone doesn't seem to "get it" and keeps contacting you - or she always has drama and chaos that weighs down the friendship.  I offered my feedback, and some of the other women provided their insight; yet everyone agreed that it's not easy to be honest and tell someone that the friendship is over and/or it's not working.  This led to a discussion about friendship breakups, and how difficult and painful they are for both parties.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the luncheon and want to thank the women who attended, as well as those who helped to make it happen.  It was wonderful to discuss the book - as it created a dialogue about various friendship experiences - and yes, Facebook was discussed and even these women shared their frustrations with it!   The best part was witnessing the beauty of female friendship and seeing how it can last. 

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a lovely way to spend the day- and super cool to be at an author luncheon :) I find it really hard to start friendship break ups because I am a pretty sentimental person, so it takes me a long time to admit that a friend and I are no long meshing, and then when I do admit it- I have an even harder time admitting it to the friend. I usually take the approach of just always being busy, or I just continue to do things with the friend even though I don't really want to. Definitely not the best plan!

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  2. Yes, probably not the best plan - but I doubt you're the only one who does this! Thanks, Kelly!

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