Six Ex-Wives
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Hi, friend,
I hope your weekend has been lovely and that you’re staying cool (or warm, if it’s winter where you are). It’s been a perfect summer weekend in Portland, just warm enough to enjoy the sun-kissed days and delightfully cool at night.
One of the other things that’s been a delight this weekend was unexpected—a friend invited me to go with them to see the musical Six.
I live under a rock where Broadway is concerned. Anything that could be considered relatively new is really new to me, even if it’s won nearly two dozen awards. I’d never heard of this musical about the six wives of Henry VIII.
The show was so much fun!
Each of the wives told their tragic stories through song: divorced, beheaded, survived. They competed against and compared themselves against one another, acknowledging that they were famous only because Henry had six wives.
In the end, they gave up competing and comparing. Instead, they realized that they each had similar experiences, that they belonged to one another. They reimagined their stories in a way that raised each other up.
They took their stories back from history—from what others have said and written about them—and made those stories their own.
We can do the same.
Is your story your own, or is it a story others have told you about yourself? How has your past shaped you? What experiences fill the present? What do you want for your future?
What circumstances are beyond your control? Which are not?
How can we raise one another up?
All my best,
Leslie
