Every year, for the last many years, a group of seven women comes together to celebrate the holidays. I’m one of the seven. Christmas and Valentine’s Day  (and one or two more during the year) have become festive occasions to gather, talk, laugh, eat yummy food and grow our bond.

We met several years ago, while working together in child welfare, four of them as DSS social workers and three of us as LMFTs for Children’s Behavioral Health. Some of us continue to work there and some of us have moved on to other opportunities.

Here’s the “so what?”…

On paper, we are quite an unlikely grouping:

-The youngest is in her mid 30’s and the oldest (me) is in her early 60’s. Soon, we’ll span four distinct decades. 

-We are in different stages of personal development (marriage, child-rearing, empty nest, perimenopause, menopause).

-We are in different stages of professional development (career ascension, career pivots).

-We come from different cultural backgrounds.

-We have different lived experiences. 

And there are seven of us…SEVEN…yet it works…it really works. 

Some things are evident: shared belief system, commitment to service, good sense of humor…and some things are inexplicable and just meant to be savored. All this to say that experiences like these are hard to explain. They’re unicorns. 

It could be a friendship, a romantic relationship, a job, a financial opportunity, a workshop, etc  Something you can’t predict, script or replicate, even if you try…it’s a unique happening that impacts your life in a positive way and is meant to be appreciated in and of itself. It may last for a lifetime or destined to be but a moment in time. We don’t know. Our invitation is to recognize the unicorn and appreciate it and all it has to offer us.

What unicorn experiences have you had?