what IS it about girl power?
while in canada, i spent some great hours with uber good friends charmaine and anne.
anne and charles they are magnifcent friends and have such great teenage stories on each other, back when he wore an ascot and they couldn’t walk through a door together because her helmet hair and shoulder pads made it impossible. when i married charles, i was lucky enough to inherit one of his best friends as well…lucky me!
charmaine and i have a more recent history, and like anne and i – we have a love. and we laugh. and we talk about our husbands, our lives, and our families. do we have favourite children? does it count as a favourite if we worry more about one than the others? we have very similar husbands, and my husband thinks charmaine is about as good as it gets because of her computer knowledge and her savvy business skills (www.adoptionprofiles.ca). charmaine and i get each other. it’s just love.
i noticed a phenomenon when i was out with charmaine and anne. (the three of us have never gotten together…that would be a fun time)…i would be with one friend or another, and we would be looking at a book, exclaming over an eyeshadow, debating alternate ways of making a pastry we were eating, bascially just rejoicing in being with a friend and being together and smiling and laughing and being in the same time zone and knowing our time was short which made it even more precious, and just being able to look at the other person and know that there infront of you was a friend that you loved and trusted and even though you knew their secrets, they still were wonderful in your eyes…when all of a sudden, a salesperson or hotel clerk would swoop down upon us.
and try to join our party.
what is it about being joyous with a friend (and not really in a loud way, unless i was requesting a bagel at the hotel before the free breakfast had ended, i might add) that makes people, particularly other women, want to be with you.
the allure of deep friendship is potent. it attracts people. i watched it happen. salespeople followed us out of their stations, just to continue conversing with us. wanting to know if charmaine and i were sisters. advising anne on which power point eyeliner to buy.
we’re not carrie and crew from SATC, but those threads of female friendship seem to magnetically attract women. especially when your contentment was showing, as ours, mine, was.
do you find this happens to you? there was no alcohol involved. this wasn’t a drink thing. this was just other women (we won’t even talk about the men who so did not stand a chance), wanting to be part of it. i’m now asking myself, do i find myself responding to girl circles?
if conversations are loud, i might go up a notch or two and respond in like, but i don’t think i am pulled into the force field of friendship. i observe it, and it makes me smile (or send a text message…), but i don’t feel the innate need to prolong by interaction in it, which is what i found happening time and again while i was with my friends.
it feels great to have love with my husband, that’s a given, but you know, when with girlfriends i love, especially those i don’t see so often, sometimes i get a little sentimental. i just love my friends. and everyone else seems to as well.
anyone?
