Normal is just so overrated.
Women in Conversation is a retreat for this area of the U.S. put on by Mennonite Women USA. I'll be worship leading at it this weekend, as well as leading a couple of workshops on Soul Journaling. Hoping to aid in women celebrating their own God-given uniqueness. Here's the description from the website:
In this workshop, Tonya will explore ways to bring the activities of our soul....our thoughts, prayers, ideas, lists, responses, collections....into a functional bound book. An avid writer, she desires for all women to find ways to creatively express themselves in print. Don't let the idea of "journaling" scare you - this is not your typical diary-writing exercise. You'll be encouraged to create a space where you can begin to view even the most basic writings, such as grocery lists and recipe collections, as an expression of your internal experience of the Holy. Nearly all of the workshop time will be spent in setting up your own Soul Journals.
Here's the kind of journals I'm referring to...made out of composition books and found things like wrappers, calendars, cards, lists, receipts, etc. NOTHING like a scrapbook. A functional collection of our "soul work". I carry mine everywhere. Its my brain and my dreams and my lists and my rantings all wrapped up in a not so tidy book.
So...if you have any scraps of paper, ribbon, stickers, stamps, wrappers, construction paper, etc. sitting in a closet and begging to be let out...and you're willing to donate it to this cause...pretty please let me know in the next few days. The women at the retreat will put it to great use, I promise. And your closet will thank me!