Last weekend, I had the pleasure of discovering a newfound sisterhood and connection at the Turkish Coffee Lady in Alexandria, VA, during a memorable coffee meet-up.

My heart is so full.

I don’t know what I was expecting from this group sip trip/this coffee date with Kisha at the Turkish Coffee Lady in Alexandria, VA…

I guess I was thinking it would be a small blogger meet up type deal though she did say she was inviting some of her friends outside of the content creation space… but the way my social anxiety is set up and the way my social meter can deplete rather quickly I am always on the defensive or on guard because I don’t know what I am walking into.

Will I feel comfortable? Will I feel safe in a space with a group of women? I am not completely closed off to the idea, I did attend after all (after fighting my anxiety), it’s simply that I try to go into situations with an open mind and wanting to forge new bonds but sometimes I am met with energy that is closed off which immediately makes me go into this mode of protecting myself and its due to past hurts from friendships.

But also, I have been praying and wanting a connection with women outside of my tried and true friend groups, who I really refer to as my sisters at this point. I have been working on closing the gap with my college sisters “the FIT3” as well as learning a new friendship space with my “usuals per usual” sisters but everyone is across the bridge!

I wanted to start developing friendships/camaraderie with women who are closer to where I live so I don’t have to leave out almost two hours ahead of time for a quick catch up.

In addition to that, in the wake of an immense tragedy that a long term friend is currently enduring, sitting with the magnified reality that I have had the opportunities to be immersed in memories and bonding with amazing, dynamic women in different phases of my life. Those relationships, if not strained, have simply fallen by the wayside or taken a backseat to whatever we all have had going on over the years. Having uncertainty about how exactly to show up for that friend when the closeness that once was, no longer lends itself to ease…

Never any love lost, even when things didn’t quite pan out the way we would have wanted or times when people didn’t see eye to eye, it’s still, at least on my part, no love lost and I still find myself missing them as life goes on…missing that bonding and sisterhood.

All that to say, with this meet up for coffee, I was in a room with nothing but beautiful women. Not beautiful in the physical sense, although they were, beautiful from a standpoint of mindset and energy. I feel invigorated, not from the coffee, but from the conversations and the bonding that occurred.

It is exactly what i have been missing; what I have been wanting to cultivate and nurture in my life as I get older.

I don’t want to be a loner; I have had the realization as of late that I have not always been a good person a lot of times in my life. I admit that.

I am not saying that I am the sole direct cause of a lot of the things that have happened with these relationship dynamics, but I definitely recognize that I too could have been better as a friend, as a person instead of pointing fingers or feeling hurt or wronged. There are things that I have done that I shouldn’t have been doing. I take full responsibility for those times.

But just being around these women - different walks of life, different age groups - hearing about how we all met Kisha and how she was the catalyst for changing for people how people viewed her, changing the perspective… it resonated with me.

Walk with me real quick…

I remember this from the class I took with Crystal Wright when I was starting my makeup career. We were learning how to do the layout for our portfolios (back when there were actual BOOKS you used to take on go sees to get booked on jobs), we had to layout our portfolio as if we were doing a layout in a print magazine. How would it look if someone opened it to a half page or is looking at it upside down, or whatever the case may be? What if their perception was skewed? You have to change the perspective sometimes. Look at things from a different viewpoint. Look at things void of your own personal bias.

And Kisha did that. She was able to change the perspective of the women she was coming in contact with. So much so that she has forged these lasting bonds outside of just a work environment and made them/us love her. Made them/us want to be friends with her and continue on this path of sisterhood.

Oh I just loved it! I felt energized, and not just from the coffee but because nothing compares to a black woman.

Be sure to check out Kisha’s blog - she is amazing at all things coffee, individual style, gifting ideas for the male figures in your life and our resident Nordstrom Know it All!

If you happen to be in Alexandria or planning to stop by soon - hop over to the Turkish Coffee Lady and try something new. Get there early because by the time we left at noon the place was packed!