I had that this weekend.

There were tons of little ones, but one big one moment that stood out this weekend in particular. Maybe the moment lasted three or four hours, I couldn’t tell you for sure because time froze around us and we sat on holy ground.  It was one of the most beautiful gifts I’ve been given as woman. I got to sit in a room filled with some of the most beautiful souls — fourteen amazing women — and speak life and truth over each and every one of them. And not just one thing but to tell them exactly how they shine and the ways they touch not only my life, in the day in and day out, out but so many others. And then I got hear them do the same for each other. To see it — rawly, vulnerably, intentionally — women affirming women in a way that was more beautiful than I could possibly describe here, I’m still soaking it all in, 15 hours later. I’ve never experienced something quite like it.

Everything else was quiet and still. Truth and beauty were spoken and, more than that, they were RECEIVED. God moved in amazing ways in so many hearts. The Holy Spirit was present, and when I prayed I felt Him first overwhelm me with the work He has done, and second hand everything back over to Him. That nothing spoken here was about me at all, but about Christ in me, and His perfect plan all along.

We sat in a beautiful home on a mountainside in upstate New York, most of us having never having met before in person but left there feeling forever connected by the sacred place that had been created among us. The place of forever for each other. 

We laughed and we cried and we drank maybe a little too much wine (wut?) and probably not enough water. We ate, and ate some more, and passed babies back and forth and learned from each other and understood each other and walked on a frozen lake and wondered what our lives looked like without this? And what they’d look like next year this time, in ten years, and beyond.

You see, I took a chance on something, a business, almost a year ago to this day. I had no idea what I was really doing. But my best friend — the most life giving person I’ve ever met—  cast a vision for me and spoke truth over me, for years, just like I got to do last night. One year ago today my life looked so completely different then it does right now. I watched God close doors and open them to point me, so clearly, to where I am today. Right in this very moment.

And what I wish for you is the very same thing.

To say yes.

To say it even if your voice shakes, to say it if you have no clue what comes next but you know that that answer is one you need to say. To say it even if you’re not ready. Cause, really, you’ll never be. If I could bottle up this moment and share it with each of you, I would. This is my best try: a glimpse into something that is beyond my wildest dreams. To be part of something so much bigger than ourselves.

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12:1