Free Therapy

I am so grateful for my girlfriends! If it wasn’t for them, I am not sure what my mental state would be right now.

A little background on us….. We call ourselves the Wine Buds. We started out as 9, then 10, and have now capped at 11 women. Our cupth runneth over with love, laughter, and cheers!!! We started out official “club” just over 10 years ago, although some of us have known each other a lot longer than that. Instead of buying each other birthday gifts, we decided to start a birthday account and save money to go on weekend trips or other get-togethers because buying birthday gifts gets harder and harder with each year that passes. We started with volunteering our time with our local Hospice annual Christmas-time fundraiser called Festival of Trees. We still volunteer our time to decorate a tree for this event and the occasional wreath or two.

Our friendships have remained a constant over the years. We may not talk to each other everyday but you can bet that if help is needed we are all there in a heartbeat for each other. Regardless of our varying degrees of closeness with each other, when one is in need of help, you can count on your Wine Buds to be there.

We have been through births, deaths, marriages, divorces….. through sickness and health, we are there for each other. Case in point, my husband was formally diagnosed with Stage 4 Colorectal cancer August 20, 2018. I remember that day so clearly that is is a recurring bad dream. The days leading up to that diagnosis were difficult. If it wasn’t for our local GI doctor, my husband would be with us today. As I was keeping my friends as arms length of our situation, there was always one or two that break right through the armor because they know “No one Fights Alone”. I was not alone when the Doctor came out after my husbands colonoscopy and said, “It’s not good, there is a tumor blocking 90% of his colon and its malignant. The next step is to see were it has metastasized.” I was not alone when I had to call his parents and break the news to them. I may have felt alone but I was never alone. My tribe of Wine Buds was always there, reaching out in some form or fashion. In this situation and the ties we have in our community, we had a whole lot of people reaching out. When one of our Wine Buds caught her husband cheating on her with her best friend we were right by her side every step of the way….. one or two at a time because those situations are very delicate and overwhelming at the same time.

Me, I have three Wine Buds that I reach out to on a regular basis, one of them knows most, but no one knows all. I thought if I started blogging (anonymously of course) I could start getting what’s in my head out. Sometimes it’s easier to talk to strangers about what is going on because they won’t judge you because the don’t know your past…. or if they judge you, it doesn’t matter as much because they don’t know you. Strangers only get to see that piece they are reading, but at the same time can provide you a more objective viewof your circumstance.

My one Wine Bud is the only friend who knows about my blog. I think it’s because we are more a like than my other Wine Bud friends. She is the sister I never had. We are the same person (at least that what our psychic thought). I am so grateful and blessed and troubled at the same time.

The point of my blog is to say Thanks for the Free Therapy! If it wasn’t for my friends to open up and talk to, I would be paying to talk to a stranger and that is just not me. I have trust issues. I don’t need someone turning my situation into a book one day. If that is going to happen, it will be by my own hand. I’m kidding of course! Who would would want to read about my life….. although I have only scratched the surface of the stories I could tell.

I want to Thank you all for giving me your time to read my blogs!