This is Shannon, Tara and little Eliza manning the booth

In addition to the pre-con session, being back in a conference setting reminded me of how much I really and truly missed being with other people (outside my immediate family and maybe a few other folks from the supermarket and the dry cleaners). I hugged more people over those 3 NANT days than I have hugged since 2019, but I digress…

Let me tell you the story.

My team and I were super excited to go to NANT12 as presenters and exhibitors. Unfortunately, one of my teammates broke her hip and wasn’t sure she would be able to go so I decided I would fly out to her, and we would both drive to the conference – ROAD TRIP .

It was awesome. We got to go over each slide of our pre-conference session in great detail during the 7-hour drive to Cincinnati. It was an awesome bonding experience too. For the ride home, we walked through a slide deck I had prepared for another talk and the synergy and wisdom that spilled forth was insane.

With work out of the way we got to chatting about our session. One brave soul shared a powerful exemplar of vulnerability, trauma and the power of courageous connection. It was truly moving. Both of us could relate to this woman's experience in different ways. There was an unspoken awareness of each other’s wounds and a renewed understanding that we all, each and every person on the planet, carries some pain.

We stopped at Mad Goat Coffee (wicked cute coffee shop right off the highway) to grab a bite and stretch. In the ladies’ room, stenciled over the mirror, was a quote from Mary Tyler Moore that struck me: “You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you”.

Let those words sink in a bit...

I think what Moore is saying is it's in the struggles, that we discover our strength. 

AND, knowing that struggling, challenges, pain and even trauma can feel really really awful, we must never let anyone struggle alone. 

So, what does this have to do with misery loves company? The road trip, our conversation, re-affirmed the urgent need for a trauma informed, healing centered approach to life.

Misery loves company because of the power of connection. Connection dispels the darkness of misery. When we brave misery, we discover a strength that we may not have known and often we discover we aren’t alone.

Misery loves company because it is with others that we are re-minded of our shared humanity, we re-member and we are never truly alone.

It is together, in misery, that we acknowledge, yeah, sometimes things are hard but we can get through the hard times together.

Thanks for taking the time to read me

Take care and care well,

Mary