UPDATE: THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED THE DRAWING AND CONGRATULATIONS TO MARYSOL FOR WINNING THE BOOK!
I am so excited to host a giveaway here today and, no, you don’t have to be Latina to enter or win.
First, some background on the book:
For nearly a decade, The Latina’s Bible has been the go-to guide for Latinas everywhere. In this updated and expanded edition, author Sandra Guzmán continues to use her trademark warmth, humor, and wisdom to explore a wide range of topics, from dating and sexuality to family and career. The New Latina’s Bible charts new territory, adding chapters that cover important issues such as sexual abuse, domestic and dating violence, interracial love, and gender identity. Guzmán once again provides a hip, empowering, highly readable guide for women who are facing the trials and joys of living and loving as twenty-first century Latinas.
One of my favorite parts of the book talks about how women need to bring ritual and ceremony back into their lives by gathering, celebrating, and revering one another. Guzman talks about her circles that gather and how “with every meeting, my soul leaves nourished.” I know I feel this way, too, with different groups or one on one dates in my life and I know that Guzman and I are not alone. So, to enter into the drawing, here’s what I want you to do. In the comments, share how you gather and celebrate with other women in your life.
Maybe it’s an annual girls’ weekend: My friend Julie has an annual weekend with her college girlfriends and they all bring “favorite things” for each other– a few things they’ve discovered in the past year that they want their friends to have in lieu of doing Christmas and birthday gifts at other times. They might bring their favorite book, a fun bracelet, a new Lipsmackers flavor, a scented candle. I LOVE that tradition. One of my roommates in my 20s and I used to go out of town to do our Christmas shopping because we didn’t want to have a bad attitude shopping in our own malls for people that we loved. Heading out of town gave us a sense of wonder and expansiveness. We weren’t in a hurry to get back to the hotel so we could look for gifts to celebrate our loved ones with glee.
Maybe it’s a party y’all throw together- BF and I host an annual Low Country Boil on the Fourth of July for our neighbors on either side of us.
Maybe it’s a monthly gathering like book club or supper club or knitting club.
Maybe it’s a phone date that nurtures you or a quick lunch out.
However you engage in nourishing your friends and loved ones and being nourished, share that in the comments.
I’ll take entries until noon on Friday, June 24th. Then I’ll let Happy draw the name out of a jar (I’m so high tech).
Now, spill it, how do you celebrate, gather, and rever with your girlfriends or loved ones?
Once a month, I meet for a writer’s group called Zona Rosa led by Rosemary Daniell. It completely re-energizes me creatively whenever I go. Sometimes I feel like in my writing, I am nowhere near many of the women I see once a month, but I muster up the courage to go even if I don’t have anything to share, because I never know what nuggets I might hear that will inspire me. Rosemary shares writing “exorcises”, intended to make us write we might not have otherwise.
I also joined a Bunco (which my mom teases me and calls “drunko”) group in my neighborhood to meet other moms. Most of them have kids in elementary school or older, but it’s proven to be a great opportunity to get advice, find out about what’s going on in the schools, and any other “girlfriend-y” topics that come up.
I’m so glad that I got involved with both groups, even though I’m the youngest by far. I hope I offer a fresh perspective to both. 🙂
I wish I had more to share! I meet a pastor friend to run – run! – about twice a week. I have coffee with a friend in my neighborhood about twice a month. This summer, though, it’s been all about weddings. I see my girlfriends at weddings, and we hug and we eat and we dance our hearts out. But one particular friend and I are always talking about what we can do that might happen annually. Something for ourselves, something not connected to or contingent on the nuptials of another. Right now, we’re thinking about her husband’s family’s mountain house outside of Seattle. It makes me relax just thinking about it.
I try and meet with my friends at least once a month – In July we are having a SPA PARTY!!! Massages, manicures, frozen margaritas and lots of bonding!
We do a Game night.. not once a month or anyting but when we can get everyone together on the same night.. Drinks, snack but mostly we just laugh.. A Good time is had my all 😀