{"id":513,"date":"2018-11-26T02:23:26","date_gmt":"2018-11-26T02:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop.honestreflections.net\/?p=513"},"modified":"2019-12-10T08:42:59","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T13:42:59","slug":"women-of-tidal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2018\/11\/26\/women-of-tidal\/","title":{"rendered":"Women of Tidal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0“<\/sup>For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”\u00a0 Matthew 18:20<\/strong>
\nReminiscing about my hometown of Tidal, PA tonight.\u00a0 Particularly the women of Tidal.\u00a0 Specifically, my Mom and her friends.\u00a0 Which, when you live in a village the size of Tidal, everyone is your friend.\u00a0 I was watching a documentary on Serena Williams.\u00a0 She talked about how where you’re from makes you who you are.\u00a0 I am so glad I’m from Tidal.\u00a0 I have learned more from my friends in that village than I have anywhere else in the world.\u00a0 So grateful for them.
\nI started thinking about them because I was helping a friend clean her house after a hectic holiday weekend.\u00a0 We hadn’t seen each other in a week.\u00a0 It was a fun way to catch up.\u00a0 \u00a0As I was cleaning I started thinking how many times I had seen friendship modeled for me this way.
\nI think of Neet taking me into her house after I fell and scraped my knee running to catch the school bus.\u00a0 Helping my Mom make sure I got to school on time.\u00a0 I think of everyone gathering together to can food for the winter or make apple butter at the church.\u00a0 I think of Mary rallying the troops to help give my Mom the most amazing birthday.\u00a0 It had been over 30 years since our family lived there.\u00a0 I have never seen a better spread than the one the women of Tidal prepared for my Mom that day.
\nAs I reflected on this from a mid-life perspective I began to understand how incredibly special this is.\u00a0 It’s not something you find just anywhere.\u00a0 People don’t help people like that anymore.\u00a0 I barely know my neighbors.\u00a0 I have met and do know all of their names.\u00a0 However our schedules are so different, I rarely see them.\u00a0 None of them come and borrow a cup of sugar.\u00a0 \u00a0It’s just not the same.\u00a0 It’s not bad, it’s just different.
\nThe Tidal women, they are all still a part of my life.\u00a0 Mary and her husband bought my childhood home.\u00a0 Just a couple of years ago she sent me the writings I did on the walls of the attic.\u00a0 My favorite retreat.\u00a0 Neet still lives in the house beside her at the bottom of the hill, across from Vivian.\u00a0 Charlotte’s grand daughter now lives in her house.\u00a0 They have never stopped being my friend.\u00a0 They never let distance get in the way.\u00a0 If I need them, I know they are there.
\nI shared this with my friend tonight.\u00a0 She made the comment, “It feels good to accomplish something together.”\u00a0 I immediately agreed, then realized it’s how we accomplish anything, together.\u00a0 That’s how we accomplish life, together.
\nWe were never meant to do this life alone.\u00a0 God always intended for us to do it together.\u00a0 The key is paying attention to who needs help.\u00a0 People are not going to ask.\u00a0 Pride gets in the way.\u00a0 I’m guilty of this myself.\u00a0 I explained to my friend tonight about the beauty of living in Tidal.\u00a0 Because it’s so small.\u00a0 Because everyone knows everyone.\u00a0 No one needs to ask for help.\u00a0 They know because they see it.
\nThey saw it when my Dad was taken to the hospital and my Mom needed someone to take care of the kids.\u00a0 They saw it when my sister battled cancer and needed someone to sit with her at chemo.\u00a0 They saw it when my Dad died and my Mom lost the love of her life.\u00a0 They saw it.\u00a0 They knew we needed help then.\u00a0 No one had to tell them.
\nIn my life today, people don’t see it.\u00a0 I don’t know if it’s because they are too busy.\u00a0 I don’t know if it’s because we live in such a densely populated area it’s easy to hide.\u00a0 I don’t know why.\u00a0 Probably because it’s hard to ask for help.\u00a0 But if there is one thing I’ve learned in my 49 years of life, everyone needs help.\u00a0 It’s just a matter of finding out what kind of help they need.
\nI learned that from the women of Tidal.\u00a0 Women, I’m grateful to call my role models.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”\u00a0 Matthew 18:20 Reminiscing about my hometown of Tidal, PA tonight.\u00a0 Particularly the women of Tidal.\u00a0 Specifically, my Mom and her friends.\u00a0 Which, when you live in a village the size of Tidal, everyone is your friend.\u00a0 I was watching a documentary… Continue reading Women of Tidal<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1514,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions\/1514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}