Answering the Question: So Now What with New York Times best-selling author, Laura Munson
My new novel, Willa’s Grove, begins with an invitation:
You are invited to
the rest of your life.
You know you can’t go on like this.
Not for one more day.
You need an interlude.
***
Imagine this:
You are in a farmhouse in Montana, wrapped in a soft blanket, sitting by a warm woodstove. There is a cup of tea in your hand, just the way you like it. There are women surrounding you who need this just as badly as you do.
We all have the same question.
The question is:
So now what?
Come to Montana and find out …
Love,
Willa
(You don’t have to do this alone.)
Maybe you have asked this question. Maybe you are asking it right now. Maybe you know you will be asking it in the near future. Maybe someone you love is asking it and you don’t know how to help them find their answer. Maybe you’ve seen yourself, or your loved one, or both, isolate because of the shame that this tether-less question can so often bring– simply in the honest asking of it. Everyone, I don’t care who you are or what’s in your bank account or how steady your life seems…everyone asks So Now What many times in their lives. It’s called being human. It’s called navigating this beautiful and heartbreaking thing called life.
But maybe you don’t know this right now. Maybe it’s new news to you. Maybe you think that everyone else knows exactly what they’re up to. I mean, just look at their Instagram and Facebook posts. Their lives must be perfect! Unlike yours. So you might as well go hide under a rock. But…maybe when you read the words “You don’t have to do it alone,” just now, you felt a little rush of surprise. And that’s likely because the only way you’ve been able to navigate these perilous waters is by becoming an island with no bridges in sight. You were supposed to know how to move forward into the next chapter of your life. You were supposed to do it with grace. I mean, you picked your spouse. It wasn’t supposed to end in divorce. You chose to have children. Empty Nest wasn’t supposed to be so debilitating. You don’t want them living in your basement. You’ve been slogging away at your job for a decade and you loathe it. But you applied for it. You majored in its field in college. You have letters after your name just so you can have this exact job. You are supposed to love it. So…shhhh…don’t tell anyone that you’re not “fine” at the grocery store. Lest you be judged. Or even rejected. Smile and buck up and pretend. And then go hide on your island. Likely there are pillows and Kleenex involved.
If you are nodding your head right now, I promise you this: you are not alone. There is a way out and it has to do with knowing just the right person to share your truth with. Having the courage to come together. And share your story. The one full of inconvenient truths and dirty secrets and oh…the shame. The shame. So do you pick the most together person in your life? How about—no. How about you choose someone who is also staring down the barrel of their own So Now What. Someone who’s just as scared as you are to have the conversations that you know you need to have. Someone who will be safe and real, even though they’ve been hiding too. Even if they’ve never been great at knowing how to be either of those things. Both of you know it’s time. And that you need to leave your life in order to bridge back to it. Not forever. Just for a small interlude. You can do a lot with a week when you are highly intentional. And that’s my call to action for you. I want us to come together. Now is the time for gathering in safe, trusted, circles of truth.
That’s what the women of Willa’s Grove do, and it’s a model of what’s possible for people everywhere at these crossroads moments of our lives. The model is this: you invite another person who you know is also in need of finding her So Now What—and it’s likely not someone in your daily life, but maybe a friend who reached out to you in desperation on a holiday or at 4:00 am but couldn’t quite bring herself to say what she seemed to really need to say. Who apologized at the end and tried to tie it up in a pink bow when you could hear her heart bleeding on the other end of the phone. That friend. Hopefully she will say yes. And then that friend asks another friend who is also in a major crossroads. And that friend asks the last. Four women. One week. One question.
I have learned the power of what I’m calling “bridge” community over and over at my Haven Writing Retreats in Montana, and that’s what inspired Willa’s Grove. In no way is this a novel about a writing retreat. But the spirit is the same. These strangers who are not strangers. These people who become kindreds as they help each other find their voices and set them free, especially in the woods of Montana.
It’s time to say yes to the profound invitations of our lives. To gather in trusted circles. And to tell each other our stories with the express intention of finding the answers we so dearly need. Please…in your hiding and pretending and shame…heed Willa’s call: We don’t have to do this alone. Call that friend. Create your own Grove Week! I hope my book lands in your heart and calls you to action. Let’s start a movement!
Yours,
Laura (and Willa)
You can pick up a copy of her book at https://amzn.to/2uxmKjH.
About the Author
LAURA MUNSON is the bestselling author of This Is Not The Story You Think It Is, which chronicles her journey through her own midlife crossroads. Drawing from the striking response to her memoir, the essay version of it in the New York Times “Modern Love” column, and her speaking events at women’s conferences across the US, Laura founded the acclaimed Haven Writing Retreats and Workshops. After watching hundreds of people find their unique and essential voices under the big sky of Montana she calls home, Laura created Willa, the invitation, the friends, and the town to share what she has learned with people globally. Her work has been published and featured in many media outlets throughout the world.
WEBSITE &SOCIAL LINKS:
Website: https://www.lauramunsonauthor.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lauramunson
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