Read: Hebrews 10:24-25

This is a busy week. Besides the fact that our youngest daughter’s wedding is just a month away, we are having a shrimp boil for the employees who work with/for my husband on Wednesday and camping at a friend’s house for the weekend. I decided I needed to compartmentalize every responsibility and work on one thing at a time. Today I did necessary shopping for part of the food for the boil and camping. I even threw in a couple of items necessary for upcoming showers and wedding festivities.

Basically, I am making every effort to remain calm and carry on. I want to enjoy every moment, every event…I want to enjoy the process, not wish it away.

Part of enjoying the moment is making time for friends. Last night we met four couples for our annual pontoon ride around a local lake. We enjoyed a few snacks and drinks, a lot of laughs and a little ice cream. But mostly, we loved one another well by just being together. It was a place of deep acceptance, safety and confidence. We shared freely and laughed loudly.

All five of the couples on board are empty nesters. Three of us have grandchildren. We need one another. The gaggle is a great place to talk about the challenges of life as we adjust to adult children, empty homes and grandchildren.

It’s important to have a gaggle of friends surrounding you. If you look that word up, you will find it means a disorderly and often noisy group of people. It also means an assortment of related things. I think I mean both of those things. Last night we gathered as an assortment of related people and our interactions were often noisy and even disorderly. And it totally met the need for community.

In the scripture reading for today, I find three things that a gaggle of friends can do for you. One, they motivate you to acts of love and good deeds. Which one of us doesn’t need a little push in the right direction every once in a while? It’s easy to become weary in well doing, so someone pushing you on is a wonderful gift.

Secondly, gaggles meet together. Face-to-face, we look one another in the eye and speak life. We share sorrows, disappointments, joys and wins. We need those who will look us in the eye and love us deeply.

Finally, we encourage one another. Today one of my gaggle called and said she thought I might be able to give her a little word of encouragement. I responded immediately with every word of blessing I could come up with, knowing that she had something specific in mind and I was sure I wasn’t hitting it. Sure enough. She was trying a new technique in her sewing project and ran it by me. I made a couple of suggestions, assured her she could do it and she tackled it with renewed confidence.

Who is your gaggle? I love it when I see my children gathering together with other adults their age and in their walk of life. They need friends who are in the same life stage. I love when our sewing group meets at church and there are women from every age and life stage.

You see, we need community. We need a gaggle, even if it gets disorderly and loud. And we need something in common that brings us together. It might be children, or no children, jobs, hobbies, music, faith…it isn’t about finding people your age. It’s about finding people who share something in common and are willing to do life together.

This is a busy time for me. Weddings, babies, blogging, sewing, travel – I need to know who my gaggle is and where I can find them at any given time. I would drop everything to be with them and they would drop everything to be with me. I need the motivation they provide to be the best version of me. I need to see them face-to-face and look them in the eye. And I need to be encouraged because some days the tasks are overwhelming.

So again I ask, who is your gaggle?

Until next time…

May the Lord bless you and protect you.
May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.

Numbers 6:24-26