Moving Forward

This past weekend my girlfriends and I got together in Gladwin for a girls weekend. We couldn’t have asked for better fall weather. My friend’s mom has a cabin on 20 acres that she let us use. Nothing but beautiful golden trees in sight. The colors were popping, the sun was shining and the temps in the upper 50s/low 60s the whole weekend. It was so nice on Sunday that I put the top down for the drive home (though I did have the heat on too!).

There were 10 of us in this group of friends, but we lost Becky in July (during our last girls weekend). Half of us have been friends since middle school/high school and the other half we picked up along the way and adopted into our group. We get together throughout the year as we can for movies, vacations, dinner. Some of us live closer than others, some work full time and so it just depends on who is available. We all know we are welcome though.

Last weekend 5 out of the 9 of us were able to go. On Friday we met up at a cider mill that had a hard apple cider tasting room. A new experience for all of us. Then we headed to the cabin, had a nice dinner and relaxed that evening. There was reading, crocheting and we even watched a movie. Something we NEVER do on a girls weekend. We stayed up late into the night talking about Becky and more serious things. Saturday we went to Dow Gardens & Whiting Forest and it was gorgeous. (I’ll make a separate post about that place soon.) We went to dinner, sat around a bonfire for awhile and had another quiet evening at the cabin, again staying up late to talk.

It was a big change from our usual weekends where we stay up late giggling, drinking and taking silly pictures. We typically do or say things that we tease each other about for the next year! Things we aren’t allowed to talk about with anyone else. Last weekend was much quieter. It wasn’t something we talked about or planned, no one said ” I don’t feel like playing a game” or ” I don’t want to get drunk and silly”. It’s like we all felt the same way inside and didn’t even have to express it to each other. I think we all just needed a weekend with each other to help heal us, not a wild and crazy kinda one.

I know we will get back to our more typical weekends. We will be silly again and talk about Becky and laugh at her antics instead of tear up. We will smile at her memory and make new memories of our own. The cloud will lift naturally, it will just take time. I came home last weekend feeling relaxed and grateful for my friendships. Maybe it wasn’t what I had expected but I think it was exactly what I needed.