On Allume, Life, And Blogging

I actually stepped on an airplane and flew across the country to go to Allume last week.  Can you believe it? Me neither.  It's not that it was impossible, just highly unlikely.  Turns out, I kinda like being a highly-unlikely sort of girl.

Allume (formerly known as Relevant) is a French word that is really pronounced as a-loo-meh.  We felt so sophisticated.  You could see a room full of 400+ women sitting there silently mouthing it to themselves.  After all, who wants to be the all-American rube who butchers every single word in any of the Romance languages?  Not I.  No, no, no.  We wanted to sound chic and sophisticated.  We're women.  It's a compulsion, I think.

And I as I walked into that hotel lobby the very first evening, I was overwhelmed.  I was overwhelmed by the hen house cackling, the few accidental men running for cover as far away from us as possible, the hugs, the instant connections, the love of the written word.  The spirit of God was heavy in that place.  And it was lovely.  

My precious new friend, Kristen, from 

Little House Domestic, whose sweet

North Carolina twang I heard coming out of 

my own mouth by the time the weekend was over.

(Why do my eyes squinch up like that? Sheesh.)

Then all of the sudden, I was knee deep in the thick of it.  Suddenly thrown into a room full of women who certainly could write better than I, had bigger and better blogs, deeper and stronger ministries, all the tech-y knowledge that I lack. I internally cringed.  What was I doing here?

 Slowly, gently, God helped me overcome that three-year-old-like desire in me to lunge under the nearest table and hide and really heard what was being said.  And the rightness of it all washed over me.

I'm still a little blogger, inexperienced in so many ways, who wonders if others actually really do read what I write. (Hello?  Is anyone out there?)  But at Allume, it didn't matter.  I was treated so lovingly by those ladies no matter what my blog size was.  I was blown away. And blessed.

What an encourager this adorable Stefanie Brown

from  UPlifting Words is! I loved getting to finally

meet her in person, but alas! no time to discuss

our mutual true love... Downton Abbey.

There really are places, beautiful, peaceful places where women really love each other for who they are.  Where they really are interested in you, in your story... in your voice.

The incomparable Sarah Mae, co-founder of Allume, 

force of nature, truly beautiful woman who took ten

minutes to listen and invest in me.  Um, wow. 

I felt like a prospector, panning for gold and I kept getting these wonderful golden nuggets of wisdom from other writers.  Could I have kept blogging without those nuggets?  Probably.  Would it have been as joyful? Definitely not.

Me and my new bestie, Ann Voskamp, Saturday night's

keynote speaker.  We're super tight now, y'all.  I just may

ask to borrow her uber-cool cowgirl boots.  She's

so incredibly gracious and humble.

I loved every minute of Allume   I loved all the words written and spoken, thought and prayed.  

My favorite words were:

The only way a tree grows tall is to stretch into unknown territory.

  ~Ann Voskamp

Our writing can be a bridge.  Not only can we allow our writing to help us become closer to God, but our writing can be a tangible bridge to help others see Him, too.

  ~Sarah Markley

Do we think we can stand before our scarred Savior without being scarred ourselves?

  ~Ann Voskamp

Little House Domestic, One Blessed Lady and Cha, Cha Chronicles

We all came together because we love to play with words.  His words.  

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. {John 1:1}  

We are all word smiths, word tinker-ers, word planters and nurturers, word lovers, story lovers, story tellers.  What's your story?

PS Yes, I DID get my new camera!  I'm a big girl now!  The hotel bathroom provided the perfect atmosphere. Ooh, la, la.