Celebrating one’s birthday is complicated. Bringing together diverse people from different circles takes creativity & flexibility. I usually need to be in a particular mood to visualize such a party and bring it into play.
After coming up with a couple approaches to Jackie’s upcoming 13th birthday, none of them seemed just right. She had a few epic events, and we are not striving to top off last years’ festivities.
I read somewhere about this birthday party idea. And as she dreads celebrating herself, I shall implement hopefully a new tradition that will pick up.
Jackie is one of a kind, having more in common with my friends than her peers. Her conversations are rich & wholesome, and I feel she is ready to enter the tribe of women officially.
I already knew that entering the teenage season, girls need to branch out their relationship to wise women. No matter how great their mother is, girls need other women to interact with on occasion, to continue to form their identity and mature.
So here’s the idea: a birthday party where all the adult women that have witnessed her life can join and speak the truth, share a memory, wish a blessing, for her birthday.
She is not entertaining us, but we come together to welcome her into womanhood as a tribe of sisters, sharing our own stories of becoming, with humor and vulnerability, making sure that she know she is not alone.
There are many who wouldn’t be able join us in person, but you could send me a short note of encouragement, a blessing, or write about a quality you’ve observed in her. Maybe share a story from your own early teens, something you wish you knew, or something you learned just in time and are grateful for it.
Mothers of daughters, let’s create space for the young women to be seen, heard, be encouraged, validated and be properly welcomed into the tribe of womanhood.