How Miranda Got Her Groove Back (aka A Mom 2.0 Summit Recap)

I have no pithy way to introduce this post. I’m trying and the witty, attention grabbing opener just isn’t coming. I just have things to say about attending the Mom 2.0 Summit last week/end and this is kind of my place for saying the things I have to say. So there’s your hook.

Bring on the eyerolling flack, but attending this conference fills me up and invigorates me.

Being surrounded by people who get social media is a simultaneously soothing and energizing experience for someone who spends much of her regular life surrounded by people who don’t really understand Twitter and Facebook and the connections which can be forged along those social platforms.

Finally putting faces to avatars and handles is a sort of justification that this thing we do online isn’t just blips and bloops inside a computer. The friendships made via blogging and Twitter are real, and I know that because of the way conversations flow seamlessly with those with whom we primarily interact safely tucked away behind our keyboards and screens when we’re suddenly face to face.

I’d venture to say that as many as 10 Listen To Your Mother city producers past and present were at the conference, including founder Ann Imig, and probably as many as 20 former cast members from the various cities where shows have taken place. We’ve been chatting for more than a year now about our shows, the ups and downs with planning and life, and getting to know one another.

We’ve weathered marriage, divorce, new babies, and great losses together, and for the first time, a pretty large number of us were in the same place. It felt like we were all supposed to be there. It was like we had always been together.

(FYI Ann, I’m not kidding about a retreat.)

That’s what the entire conference felt like. This year felt like an expansion of my circle and for what might be the first time in adulthood, I truly felt like I fit absolutely anywhere.

I was content to sit alone in a session or wander around by myself visiting sponsor booths because I knew that at some point, I would run into someone old or meet someone new. It was comfortable.

I felt comfortable. I felt like enough. Mostly. Except that one time I didn’t which is another post entirely.

Now that I’m home, I feel renewed. Maybe the Arizona heat just scorched my brain and I’m totally misinterpreting what I feel as the urge to write and tell stories and share and my brain is just melty. But I don’t think that’s it.

I think Mom 2.0 helped me get a little bit of my groove back. I think I’m okay with that.