Sorry for the silence around here. I'd planned to blog daily while on the road but chose to rest instead.
This was by far the healthiest trip I've ever taken. I adjusted to Eastern time during the week prior to leaving so that I was alert at fully present during all meetings (vs. exhausted and desperate to get to bed.)
I exercised each morning, keeping my chronic pain issues to a minimum (vs. major back pain from being crammed in a plane seat and then sitting in meetings all day.)
I felt admiration and excitement for the other women and their amazing ideas, insights, projects, gifts, and talents.
But I can honestly say that I did not feel envy.
Which is huge, as jealousy has been a life-long battle for me...alway accompanied by a barrage of negative comparative self-talk about how my clothes, shoes, hair, make-up, face, body, nails, voice, gestures, etc. don't "measure up" to someone else's.
For once, I did not want to be anyone else or even "be just like" anyone else.
The more excited I got for other women, the more excited I got about just being me.
And did I ever learn a TON about how to become the woman God is calling me to be!
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I had expected to be reminded of my past and focused on all the work I need to be doing in my present to "fix" my past.
Instead, I was reminded that God knows my past, He has taken care of my past, and I am free to enjoy what He's creating in my present!
I keep hearing and experiencing Romans 15:13:
May the God of hope
fill you with all joy and peace
as you trust in Him
that you may overflow with hope
by the power of the Holy Spirit."