I’m returning from a fantastic weekend of business AND pleasure! Here’s a fun re-cap and a little insider scoop into my very busy past few months!

I just spent the past 5 months working with a wonderful healthcare organization, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), on trauma-informed practices. It’s been inspiring, challenging, and soul-filling to work with Gracelight Health Center. And I’ve been so fortunate to meet incredible leaders, medical staff, and dedicated health care professionals from Southern California. Next week, I’ll talk more about the experience of becoming a trauma-informed organization and what it has meant for this group. 

This past weekend, an incredible group of girlfriends joined me for my last in-person training. On a whim, they decided to join me in LA. It transformed a somewhat sad (because I’ll miss Gracelight) experience into a celebration of friendship and work. We had dinners out, enjoyed sparkling wine by the pool, went for long walks, enjoyed an incredible Korean Spa, and shared stories about our families. And it reminded me of a story one of these brilliant women shared while we were reveling in our time together. I want to share it here. 

She mentioned that her daughter had gone to the event at school where you learn about different clubs at your school. She proudly told her mom she had attended this event and my friend delighted in her daughter’s experience. She’s raising fierce, intelligent, lovely humans and you can see the pride when she tells these stories. Her daughter reported that she had found the club for children with neurodivergence. She proclaimed they were giving out sandwiches and reflected, “Maybe these sandwiches are for me,” meaning, maybe these are my people. As I listened to this story, my heart swelled with love and appreciation for two things. First, for my friend, who whole-heartedly embraces her children and all of their humanbeingness. And second, for the recognition that we ALL need to find our people. We all need to find where we belong. 

I’m so blessed to have incredible groups of friends, like these women. All bold. All brave. All brilliant. Perfectly imperfect human beings that completely love me without condition. Isn’t that what we all need? The people who make us say – “Maybe these sandwiches are for me?” “Maybe this is where I belong?” “Perhaps, these are my people!” 

I know we all have differing capacities for finding our squad, our village, our people. But, I truly believe, there is nothing more important than connection. 

If you want to find out more about connection, please continue to join me here, share this newsletter with others, join us on social media, or, if you want to find the people with the sandwiches that fuel you – join us here in a ConnectEd Collab!