Within moments of John telling me that he was leaving our marriage, I texted a friend:<\/p>\n
John is leaving me.\u00a0 In despair.\u00a0 Can I come over?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I remember almost nothing of that night except that I had a shoulder to cry on and a friend who listened and offered every imaginable support, while serving me cup after cup of hot herbal tea.\u00a0 In the days that followed, as I explained my situation to other close friends, a tight net of support emerged around me.\u00a0 The support often came from tangential relationships, such as the woman who came over to explain California divorce to me.\u00a0 She’d never been to my home and we’d only met once before–but she was freshly divorced herself and knew she had information that I would need.\u00a0 She stayed for hours and listened as much as she shared.<\/p>\n
Then there was the group of friends who live far away, who daily sent me snail-mail letters and care packages.\u00a0 These sweet notes arrived both in Pasadena and Irvine–they covered all the bases because they knew I was flitting between two homes during the month of December.\u00a0 They were envelopes filed with color and poetry and care.\u00a0 Reminders that I was loved and important and strong.\u00a0 My Exponent sisters sent the softest-ever blanket with a giraffe-fabric pattern–as a reminder that giraffes are matriarchal creatures and they take care of their own.\u00a0 That blanket went back-and-forth with me wherever I slept during December and is still folded into a rectangle at the foot of my bed.<\/p>\n
Now, as I find myself trying to forge a path forward with this new life of mine, I continue to be influenced by the stories of friends who have followed similar trajectories.\u00a0 Using the imagery of my blogtitle, I consider myself a fellow pilgrim with these women.\u00a0 Some of them have traveled on ahead of me and can offer a map of where they’ve been.\u00a0 Others are traveling alongside me, or are journeying on a similar, but separate, route.<\/p>\n
Recently I wrote to several of these women and asked them to share their wisdom on my blog.\u00a0 Because I feel as though we can all benefit from hearing their stories.\u00a0 We have so much to learn from each other and we have so much support to offer those who are in the midst of their own difficult paths.\u00a0 Thus, I’ll be posting the writings of many of these women as Guest Posts on Pilgrimsteps over the next few weeks, under the title of “Traveler’s Tales.”<\/strong> If you have a story or some thoughts that you would like to share for this feature, please send them to janaremyATgmail<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Within moments of John telling me that he was leaving our marriage, I texted a friend: John is leaving me.\u00a0 In despair.\u00a0 Can I come over? I remember almost nothing of that night except that I had a shoulder to cry on and a friend who listened and offered every imaginable support, while serving me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travelers-tales","category-women"],"yoast_head":"\n
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