What are your plans for National Women’s Friendship Day? Oh, you didn’t know? National Women’s Friendship Day seeks “to promote special friendship among women” and falls annually on the third Sunday in September.
My women friends are my mainstay right now. Being present is no small thing. We’ve been feeling a deep loss of connection as we experience social distancing and its stricter companion, shelter-in-place. But we already had been feeling a loss of connection as part of the social fabric, for many years. We women know how to fix that. We are all about connections. Checking in with friends isn’t just important during a pandemic. It’s always important, particularly in light of rampant loneliness in the U.S. and other countries.
A 2018 Brigham Young University report showed that people with strong friendships live 7.5 years longer than those with weak or few social ties. We women know this. We know how much we need women’s friendships—whether we’re feeling afraid or alone, or feeling happy and wanting to celebrate.
So who are the women who lift you up? Who has your back? Who would drop everything and be at your side if you needed something?
This message is an excerpt from “Circle of friendship” by Sonia C. Solomonson in the September 2020 issue of Gather magazine. Learn how to become a Faithful Friend of Women of the ELCA. Today is National Friendship Day and the 16th Sunday after Pentecost.
Do you enjoy these free Daily Grace messages? If so, donate now to further the ministry. Use the “where needed most” line. Subscribe to Gather magazine for full articles excerpted in Daily Grace.
reply
retweet
favorite