Last week I told you that I made us a space.

Today I finally get to open the door. ❤️

I've spent a lot of this week reading your replies to The Last Day of 52, and something keeps happening that I find fascinating.

One woman tells me about navigating divorce in her 50s. Another is grieving the loss of a parent. Some of you are adjusting to empty nests while others are still very much in the thick of active motherhood. Some are burned out from careers you've spent decades building (like me), while others are trying to figure out what you want to do with the freedom you've finally earned.

The details couldn't be more different. But over and over again I hear some version of the same thing:

I thought I was the only one who felt this way! 

Maybe that's what I've noticed most since I started writing these Sunday letters again. We don't necessarily need someone to tell us what to do next. Sometimes we just need to know we're not the only one here.

And every week as I've read your replies, I've had moments when I desperately wanted to introduce one of you to another.

You need to hear what she just told me!

The woman going through the thing you're afraid of may be able to tell you what she learned on the other side of it. You may have words for the woman ten years behind you that you wish someone had given you when you were standing where she is. Honestly some of you have given me some incredibly valuable advice that I wanted everyone to hear. 

And maybe some of us can admit that we have no freaking clue what you're doing next and decide together that maybe we don't actually need to. 😂

That's why I created the Rediscovering Me Community. And as of today, the door is officially open.

PULL UP A CHAIR ❤️

I don't want you to become another project

There's another theme in your replies that I haven't been able to stop thinking about.

So many of you connected with what I wrote about not having a five-year plan for 53 and wanting to spend less time predicting my life and more time actually living it.

And I think there's something bigger underneath that. Women are handed an endless list of ways we could be better. I’m sure you can relate…

Eat better, exercise more, fix your hormones, improve your relationships. Get your finances in order, declutter your house, find your purpose. Reinvent your career, heal your childhood, optimize your morning routine.

And apparently now we're supposed to rediscover ourselves too. 😂

I've caught myself doing it too. 

Okay, Alison. You're in a new chapter. Who are you going to become now? What's the PLAN?

I'm starting to wonder if one of the greatest freedoms of this season of life might be realizing that I don't have to treat myself like a never-ending project. Phew, that feels good just saying it out loud.

Maybe you don't either.

That doesn't mean we stop growing or changing or trying new things. I'm deeply curious about all of those things. But what if growth doesn't always have to begin with the assumption that there's something about us that needs fixing?

What if sometimes we can just be women living our lives?

Trying things and changing our minds. Getting things wrong and finding things we love. Grieving things we've lost and laughing about something completely ridiculous. Asking questions we don't have answers to yet.

That's what I want Rediscovering Me to be.

Not another place where you log in and immediately feel behind. There isn't homework, you don't need to keep up. You don't have to participate every day or have something profound to contribute.

Come in when you want company. Bring what's happening in your actual life.

I've been setting the table for us

There are already a few conversation starters waiting for you inside.

There's a place to introduce yourself. 

There's our first Community Breadcrumb waiting for you.

There will also be things completely “un-deep” because we cannot spend every day contemplating the meaning of our existence. On that note, I got curtain bangs cut last week and have been dying to share it with you! 😂

I want to know what you're reading, what you're wearing, where you're traveling, what you're watching, what product you can't stop telling people about and what random thing is making your life better lately. 

But mostly, I want to know you.

And I want you to start knowing each other. I want you to recognize someone's name a few weeks from now and think, Oh! I wonder how that thing with her daughter turned out.

I want someone to share something she's struggling with and have another woman say, I've been there.

I want the woman in her 40s to hear from the woman in her 60s, and the woman in her 70s to discover that the woman in her 50s has something she needed to hear too.

None of us is the expert on how to do life. We're just bringing what we've learned so far.

I'll be there too, in conversations, commenting and sharing right alongside you, but this isn't a Community built around me.

The whole reason I created it is because I want us to have each other.

Think less social media. More sitting around a table with women who get it. ❤️

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

This week's Breadcrumb 🌱

Before I give you this week's Breadcrumb, there's one little difference.

Don't send your answer only to me this time.

Bring it into Community because this is exactly the kind of question where I don't just want to know your answer.

I want you to be able to read each other's.

So here it is:

If you could sit around a table with a group of women right now and talk honestly about ONE thing happening in your life, what would you want to talk about?

Not what you think you should be working on, not the polished answer.

What's the thing you keep thinking about, wondering about, struggling with, getting excited about or wishing you could ask:

“Is anyone else experiencing this too?”

Maybe it's your kids, your marriage, your parents, your body, friendship, work, aging, money, purpose. A move you're considering. Something you're grieving. Something you're dreaming about.

Or something completely different.

That's our first Breadcrumb inside Community, and it's already waiting for you.

I have a feeling it's going to lead us into a whole lot of conversations we don't even know we need yet.

A few details before you come in

The Rediscovering Me Community is private, intentionally hosted and just for us. These Sunday letters will always remain free.

Community is $9/month, or you can join as a Founding Member for $49 for your entire first year.

The Founding Member offer is available through September 30, and it's the best annual rate there will be.

You don't have to decide whether you're going to become a “Community person.” 😂

Come in, look around, introduce yourself if you want to. Read a few conversations, answer our first Breadcrumb.

Settle in. There's no right way to be here.

I just want this to feel like a place you can come when you want connection, perspective, a recommendation, a laugh, the long view, or just another woman saying:

Oh, you too?

I've been talking about wanting a smaller, quieter, more intentional corner of the internet for weeks now.

Today, we finally have one.

Pull up a chair. I'll meet you inside. ❤️

YES, I WANT TO JOIN ❤️

xo

Alison