Unplugging and Recharging

Once a year, I spend a weekend in a small, non-air-conditioned cottage in the woods of central Wisconsin with no cell phone service, no cable television and no internet. If you know anything about me, you know that, normally, this would be my definition of hell. On the contrary. This is my annual Girls’ Weekend and although I do admit that I find it challenging to do without some of life’s amenities, I prefer to think of this as my life...unplugged.

As I explained last year, this is the time when seven women gather to reconnect and perhaps be thought of as individuals. Yes, more than anything, I treasure Girls’ Weekend because for three days, we’re not thought of as moms, wives, employees, partners, cooks, housekeepers or unpaid chauffeurs. For three days, we are just women with hopes, dreams, goals, aspirations and talents that are perhaps overlooked in our daily lives. During Girls’ Weekend, we build each other up, break down false pretenses and remember what it was like to worry only about ourselves – a luxury that is rare in our day-to-day routines.

To our families, Girls’ Weekend has become somewhat of a myth of epic proportions. We return home feeling very relaxed, but with very few stories. And, as anyone knows, the less information, the more imaginations tend to wander. I will admit that in our first years, we would get a bit wild, but we’ve mellowed in old age and now seem to relish the tranquility of silence and long, deep conversations that we’re denied on a daily basis.

Throughout the weekend, as we sip cocktails and float awkwardly in our inner tubes, we enjoy belly laughs and inside jokes and tales of misadventures in the carpool lane, the boardroom and the grocery store aisles. (Honestly, it would bore our children to tears.) We laugh at each other’s absent-minded mistakes and share stories and language that we would find wholly inappropriate in our own homes. For 72 hours, we let our guards down and don’t put them back up until we climb into our cars on Sunday afternoon.

The highlight of our weekend is when we all gingerly step into a small speedboat, motor into the center of the lake and set goals. Yes, I said set goals. I know it sounds very nerdy and I have no clue why it started, but we protect that tradition more than any other during Girls’ Weekend. As the unofficial “goalkeeper,” it’s my job to bring our goals from past years, allowing us to giggle about the many that we’ve never achieved. But more important than achieving the goals is the idea that, as grown women, we should even have goals. At some point during our busy lives, we tend to forget that as productive as we are, it’s important that we set our sights on something beyond our daily existence.

I can’t speak for the others, but I know that when I return home, I’m very glad to be back in my own home with all of my creature comforts. I’m so grateful to return to my life with its many imperfections and daily challenges. And yet, I’m also so grateful to know that year after year, I get to return to Girls’ Weekend to unplug and, ironically, recharge.

*Above is our annual Girls' Weekend group photo. That's me on the far left.