On Female Relationships

My high school classmates and I, ever since we re-discovered one another "eons" ago, or a very long time ago, rather, not a long time ago,... well, not really that long,... (excuses, excuses!!) for our Silver Jubilee, (Oh, gosh!... EONS ago!), have been meeting quite regularly, starting more or less quarterly, and now, more every other month, plus in between, like on occasions - birthdays, weddings, when a classmate comes for a visit from around the country or abroad, and on and on - any excuse we can think of just to get together! Unfortunately, I can't make it at all times and I'm really trying to make it at every gathering. I'm missing so much fun! Yes, like I missed last month's at Dulce's. 

Miss you, guys, I mean, girls! But I'm there in spirit!... Forget being there in spirit, I should be there with you, body and soul, every gathering - no excuse!

Talk about girlfriends, here's sharing a beautiful article that another dear friend and classmate, Jo, one of those dearest to my heart, sent me on e-mail -
Female Relationships

They Teach It at Stanford


In an evening class at Stanford the last lecture was on the mind-body connection - the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends. At first everyone laughed, but he was serious.

Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences.

Physically this quality "girlfriend time" helps us to create more serotonin - a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well being. Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going. Jobs? Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf? Yes. But their feelings? Rarely.

Women do it all of the time. We share from our souls with our sisters/mothers, and evidently that is very good for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym.

There's a tendency to think that when we are "exercising" we are doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged, not true.

In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking!

So every time you hang out to schmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health! We are indeed very, very lucky. Sooooo, let's toast to our friendship with our girlfriends. Evidently it's very good for our health.

Forward this to all your girlfriends and stay in touch!

Thanks to all the women in my life who have helped me stay healthy, happy, and feeling connected.

Thanks, Jo, for the beautiful article and a beautiful friendship. 
Jo and I met each other again after high school, in L.A., (really, EONS ago!), before the rest of us did for our 25th High School Reunion! We both lived in L.A. but didn't know where each one was, (no computers, no cell phones, google, facebook, then!), only to find out later that we were neighbors, just a block or 2 away, can you imagine! Jo, remember?... You don't remember?? Uh-oh.