GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLFRIEND GATHERINGS

Learning from YOU to empower ME !

Blogalicious 2014 – Adding to My Creative Tribe

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Sometimes the thing that pops into your life unexpectedly is the one thing that you soon realize had been missing.    This was the case with my attendance at the Blogalicious 2014 Conference in San Antonio, Texas this past weekend.

This conference had not been on my radar.  I heard about it a couple of years ago and made a note but did not pursue it.   Then this past July, 2014, I was in San Jose at the BlogHer conference and I met the Co-Founder and Chief Curator, Stacey Ferguson, along with several other bloggers who were past attendees of Blogalicious.   In discussions with them I discovered that the 2014 conference city was in my backyard in San Antonio.  So, this past week, I packed up my bags and headed west to The Alamo City along with my good friend and fellow writer/blogger, Anne Boyd, of Am I Vintage Yet (www.amivintageyet.com)

We arrived and the first thing we noticed was that the pace ramped up quickly.   My first impression was this conference was not for the faint at heart.   If you were afraid to dream and think BIG then you were in the wrong place.   There were so many progressive speakers from the blogging world who were sharing their knowledge and energy in helping attendees identify their needs and a path to progress their blog/brand.  I walked away from that conference with so much homework and so many ideas for my blog site.   I made some new connections with brilliant, smart, positive, and beautiful women from all over the country.  Also, I acquired some great blog topics to post so I will be sharing some great information with you over the next few weeks.

It wasn’t all work at the conference.   We did have some fun.   We had a private film screening of the movie “Beyond the Lights” presented by Relativity Media at the AMC Rivercenter Theatre.   The movie is a wonderful love story and you should plan to see it.   After the movie, we had a Q&A session with writer and director Gina Prince-Bythewood.  During the conference days, we also had the opportunity to chat with producer, writer, director Issa Rae (www.issarae.com) and actor Lamann Rucker (www.lamannrucker.com).    One evening we relaxed with a really funny comedienne, Aida Rodriguez (www.funnyaida.com), who gave me some good belly laughs and I thank her for that because I really needed it.    Plus, the sponsors treated us really good with hospitality suites and events that involved food and cocktails.

Overall, it was a fabulous high-energy conference and Blogalicious is now definitely on my path to success.

Musings on the Death of Robin Williams

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Theatrical Masks [Converted]When one my best friends mentioned the death of Robin Williams in our phone conversation, I responded with the one-word question of disbelief – “Who?”    She repeated his name again and it still took me a few seconds to truly understand the gravity of what had happened.   As she explained the few details she knew, an image popped into my thoughts with the words of an old Smokey Robinson song – “Tears of a Clown.”   The song states that there is nothing in human life sadder than the tears of a clown when no one else is around.    These were my immediate thoughts.

Robin Williams gave all of us feelings of happiness and laughter with his beautiful and amazing talents.    It is heartbreaking to think that we could not be there for him while he struggled with his illness.    I know some of us will focus on the fact that he committed suicide, but his death is no different than someone who dies after battling cancer or leukemia.     Depression is an illness just like cancer and death (suicide) can be the end result just like cancer.   It is a known fact that suicide is #10 on the causes of death of Americans.

There is a stigma in our society for persons with emotional illness.   Some of us even have family and friends with some level of emotional illness, but we just ignore it.   Usually, we make excuses for their behaviors but the deep-down fact is we fear it.    If you live a public life (celebrity, politician, etc.) it is even more difficult to seek help when suffering from emotional illness because of the fear of being ostracized.    Until the societal view changes on emotional illness, I am afraid we will lose more brilliant, talented, and well-loved individuals to it.

Let us all remember Robin Williams for the smiles and laughter he gave us.   Let us accept that at the moment his life ended Robin had suffered more pain and despair than we can ever understand.   Let us send up prayers of caring peace for him and his family.

In August 2011, I wrote a post “Down in the Valley – The Valley so Low” (     https://gossipfromthegirlfriendgatherings.com/2011/08/08/down-in-the-valley-%E2%80%93-the-valley-so-low/) about depression – especially in women.    Perhaps it is time to revisit that post and give close attention to our family and friends.   We must rise above our fears to help those who may need us more.   Let us do this in memory of Robin Williams.