one two three four {summer sisters}

{My sisters - 1980} 

{A cookbook that was a collaboration of my grandmother and her friends for charity.}

{My sisters lounging in the campground at Virginia Beach - 1981}

{My sister, myself, my cousin on our uncle's boat on Lake Champlain - 1987}

I got this in an email from my aunt - I suspect it's a chain but poignant none the less.

"I just finished taking 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 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 which 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 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."

Some weekend goodies:

Mango Lemonade - you won't regret it.

A blast from the past - I loved this book.

Massive girl crush happening here.

Love this editioral - want to move right in!

Many ways to cook an artichoke - Think I'll give one another one of these a go.

Hope you have a great weekend and that you all find the opportunity to reconnect with a 'sister.'