Yesterday, Day 151 of the Pink Collar Savvy & Chic on Purpose Project started off rough. I had plans for the weekend to dance with my Zumba tribe Friday night and to do lunch with a dear friend from my teaching days today. Thursday night, however, I developed a sore throat. When I woke up yesterday morning after a fitful night’s sleep with what felt like the beginning of a cold, my first thought was, No, tonight’s Zumba for the Cure! My second was, And I’m supposed to have lunch with Terri tomorrow! Considering the week I’ve had dealing with my Ds, I desperately needed the time with my new Zumba friends and my old friend of nearly twenty years.

Desperate may sound like an exaggeration, but I knew I was in a desperate time when I turned to DayQuil as first resort! Next, I decided to give the networking meeting I’d planned to attend a miss. I’d been looking forward to it, and brunch with a member afterward, but felt lousy enough that I knew I needed to rest if I had any hope of being up for two hours of dancing. I spent the day doing nothing more taxing than responding to emails and by 6PM felt as if I could at least get to the Zumbathon, even if I didn’t last the duration.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that as soon as I arrived, the palpable positive energy of all in attendance rejuvenated me. Back in 2014, following an emergency hysterectomy and a second surgery a few months prior, I experienced a breast cancer scare of my own, one where the doctors thought I was at stage four right up until the biopsy results. The benign tumor was large enough that it had to be removed anyway. It was a nightmare, but nothing compared to what the brave women fighting cancer actually live through. Dancing with the new friends I’ve made since I started doing Zumba to regain my health after my female diagnoses was and is such good medicine for me! I truly feel better when I’m dancing, especially when it’s For The Cure.

Thankfully, this morning, Day 152 of the Project, there was no trace of a sore throat. I got an uninterrupted night’s sleep and woke up ready to dance again and to do my lunch date. Terri and I go back twenty years. Although we rarely see one another because of, well, life, whenever we do, it’s like we just pushed pause on our last conversation. At one point, when I was a Leadership Coach at 4C for Children, I told her about a vacancy and she came to work in the same department as my dear friend, Kibby. The three of us had a ball at Cracker Barrel just bonding over our personal and professional lives. Good food; good friends! As much was we all talked, Terri and Kibby made sure I got to talk about my troubles. Being able to openly share what I’ve been going through lifted the weight a bit, and it was so obvious that they were willing to help me bear it (Galatians 6:2). In addition, Terri had some personal (and hilarious) insight into the situation because she was around when I was married to my wasband! Laughter is also good medicine!

As a Pink Collar Savvy & Chic on Purpose Chick who understands that some of life’s greatest lessons are those we learn as children, though I wasn’t a Girl Scout, I’ll use their admonition: Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other is gold. The Bible tells us that someone who has one true friend is rich. I have many. Some silver. Some gold. All invaluable. All treasured.

How about you? When was the last time you connected with that old friend – not just on Facebook but in real time?

Be savvy & chic,

~Pink Collar Coach