A unique birthday gathering

My birthday is around the time of bad air making us run to the hills so I have not celebrated with my friends for the longest I can remember ... last year we were about to leave just a day after, so I thought why not invite all my girlfriends together for a CIRCLE Night - not just about me but about friendship! I have great friends across parts of my life - school, college, my son's school, work, peer facilitators but they do not all know each other.. just the thought of all these amazing women together gave me goose bumps... I anxiously sent the invite message and to my surprise, all of them said they would love to join... just like that...

The night came, we all gathered, enjoyed nice home made pani puries and chaat, as in any party people kept strolling in... it was around 9 pm... my dear friend Tulika Mehra asked "aren't you doing the circle?" ... I hesitated ... the evening was going well anyways.... should I.... I took the plunge and said let's do it... I invited my girlfriends towards the more open back space, we sat in a circle in cushions and everyone curiously stared at the basket in the centre which had a range of play things... 

I opened the circle with bells inviting all to choose one object and reflect on it silently.. I then invited them to reflect on what that object tells them about friendship...People hesitated a bit but then slowly everyone picked up something... after some silence, we paired up with someone and share our reflections... and when I rang the bells they had to introduce their partner and share their reflection in the circle... people giggled some shifted in their seats... then the partners got formed... and the conversations started... oh how the energy just shifted... it did not feel like a room of strangers could connect so deeply so quickly.... we came back in the circle and everyone shared one by one their partner's reflection.... we could not have had a more rich and healing conversation about one the most basic nurturing aspects of our lives - friendship.... people heard each other and felt not a sense of envy but a sense of inspiration.. a sense of "this is possible".... we then got into a conversation of their stories about me.... my school friends could not believe my son's school parents that I am such a stickler for time since I was also late going to school/ college....one of my friends said "oh, this is what you do and you get paid for it!!!!"... it was one of those moments of deep humility and gratitude that this room full of women loved me and held me in their care....

We closed by inviting everyone to write one thing that energised/ nourishes us... and then we swapped the cards... I got "detailed gossip with my besties"....

This is a story of how a personal gathering can build connection & meaning!