Stories of Connection & Growth

As 'gratitude' seems to be the buzz word this time of year, I find myself all the more determined that it be genuine. To me, gratitude is the most powerful clarifying and healing agent. 

It has a way of dissolving trivial complaint, disappointment, and fear, reminding us of what truly is. It clarifies in us a more accurate, expectant perspective. 

A year into Honest Heart Journeys, I see that our community – not me, or any one person or experience, but this unified, whole idea of community that resonates within each of our hearts – is offering something that our world needs. 

Our vision lifts up a kind of sisterhood that celebrates genuine, open, trusting and supportive friendship amongst women and defies long-held labels, stereotypes and expectations – both our own, and others’.

This week, I celebrate some of the stories from our inaugural trip to Baja – inspiring proof of what we’re experiencing and building together:

There was something very magical that happened on our Baja trip. I’ve traveled with other groups before and never experienced anything like this. I noticed it on our first boat ride out to the island. It didn’t matter who anyone was sitting next to but everyone immediately paired up and was having such a meaningful and animated conversation. It was like the perfect coming together of time and space and women. Normally it could take weeks or months or years to develop this level of conversations and trust, but this happened instantly, in a moment. - Baja Trip Guest

We weren't wearing our professions, pasts, politics, lifestyles-to-impress, judgements, or limitations. While we were curious about each other's stories and could ask about our work and families and homes, these things didn't define us. Our ideas, struggles, insights, compassion, growth, questions, humor, tears, hopes, exuberance, lightheartedness, wonder -- these took center stage and gave us a chance to catch glimpses of our own promise (who we are at our core) and how satisfying it is to discover the genuine beauty of other women and to share unfiltered companionship with them as we join in an unplugged experience together. - Baja Trip Guest

You all transformed my idea of sisterhood and have set a high bar. - Baja Trip Guest

I arrived at the trip feeling depleted and burdened, fragile with some of life’s heaviness, and wasn’t feeling confident I could lift myself out. I was excited for even the chance of a temporary reprieve, but secretly hoped for more. The reprieve came immediately, and the ‘more’ came a little each day. 

The instant camaraderie and non judgmental support of the women on the trip allowed me to feel safe to share my concerns and unload some fears. They met me with their compassionate listening, their experience, their wisdom, their encouragement. 

I loved weaving the insights from the book, Gift from the Sea, into our daily lives and looking beyond the immediate moment of worry or doubt to seeing a bigger picture filled with hope and promise.

The beauty of the area, the wildlife, the adventure each day, swept me out of my pressured little shell and afforded me some grand relief and greater hope. I could breathe a little easier and smile a little broader. I left the trip feeling not only refreshed but renewed and determined to approach my responsibilities with fresh energy and perspective. I continue to draw on these insights and am blessed to feel I have a concrete experience to tap into. - Baja Trip Guest

The HHJ experience flew completely off the charts in all categories for me. It far exceeded my expectations with the added bonus of debunking the notion that I’m unlikely to be comfortable around a group of women who I don’t know and may come from a different lifestyle and set of interests from me. I think that was the biggest surprise for me – the amount of meaningful connections with others that I was finding and witnessing. - Baja Trip Guest

And the connection and transformation are lasting!

Recently, one of our Baja guests shared that weeks after the trip, she's experiencing a growing sense of sustainable balance within and between every aspect of her life now — including work, play, spiritual time, friendship, family, travel, and more. 

Women who have served side by side for years in parent and church groups got to really know each other as deep sister friends in Baja. They dropped assumptions about one another and overcame hesitation about being with a group of all women.

Two women who met for the first time in Baja, united by a shared desire for greater peace in their lives, have plans to fly in from separate states this month and get together for a long weekend, just to walk on the beach again, read, talk, and continue “sistering.”

One of you shared that, though you weren’t able to go on the recent trip, you’ve had a burning desire to hear about it!

Like many, you want to feel part of the HHJ community's continued momentum. You attended the first two Saturday morning Conversations online, and you miss seeing, and want to get to know, the women on those calls!

How can we better unify the two arms of HHJ – in-person trips and regular online community? We’re thinking through how to build a stronger, more consistent and inclusive community together -- to keep the momentum going.

Here are a few ways we see our inner and outer journeys of connection and growth – and our in-person trips and online community – working together in the new year:

• CULTIVATING DEEP REFLECTION: Each HHJ trip has its own book that provides environmental context and shared life metaphors and themes for deep reflection and conversation. We’ll invite the whole community to read along and discuss these books in our online Conversations Community as well.
• BALANCING CONNECTION & GROWTH: We’ll continue to develop our online Conversations Community with BOTH workshops that give you tools for growth AND opportunities for interactive dialog in small groups around topics and themes that resonate with so many of us. Stay tuned!
• CELEBRATING TOGETHER: Following each trip, we’ll host on our online community an evening gathering for trip guests to share their stories, insights, and spirit. Expect lots of laughter and joy as we include the whole community, and expect an invitation soon to join the group from our inaugural trip to Baja during the first week of January!
• PAYING IT FORWARD: In 2023, we’ll introduce ways to support others' growth – including donating toward a trip or online workshop for a friend or relative. For many of us, someone once believed in and invested in us…and we might now be in a position to make a deeply meaningful difference for someone else!

I see the purity of a sisterhood that doesn’t include comparisons, but wants everyone to thrive, genuinely, and to be lifted by it.

Someone once said that we grow to give. Let’s celebrate the circles of Good in our lives. It’s invigorating to see what we can do as we step into our fullness….together!

Join Honest Heart Journeys in Baja in October, 2023. Find out more here!

(Baja Photo credit: Ashley Bay)