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