The Guy Panel

What an evening! From the first of you walking in my home, Carole with her beautiful hair in a new style and Mikki looking radiant, to my lovely curly-haired daughter Daria lighting up the room, to the last few stragglers not wanting to leave, the night was perfect.

We had planned a "Guy Panel." After months of hearing relationship counselors and life coaches and profile writers, we invited the real deal to our meeting, three guys who were involved with three of us WOW ladies to answer our questions about men. I hoped it would be informative and interesting and, mostly, fun. Little did I know.

So we asked the questions and they gave their answers and I thought I'd have great stuff for the blog, some quotes about their views on women and dating and sex. Details about why men do what they do. Details on what they like about us or wish was different. But I realized, a few minutes into their answers, that what we were learning from the guys was not in the specific answers to our questions, but who they really are as people. Three very different guys, different in age and education and style, different in size and looks and appearance. But so much alike in ways that touched our hearts.

We learned from these three men that they feel deeply, that they appreciate the women who have chosen them, and that they are very grateful for the love and affection that have been given to them. We learned that we have to look past their quirks, like how sometimes they talk too much or listen too little, to see who they really are inside, to see the person they have become and so yearn to share with a good woman. That regardless of their age, be they young or many decades later, they have strong feelings and that they are surprisingly not hesitant or embarrassed to reveal them. And that what they want most is women who are real, who are able and willing to be authentic, who will let down their guard to let the guys into their hearts. And we learned that the perfect guy for us may come in a package that is very different than what we hoped for, that the guy can be young or short or in a different profession than we imagined but that he can be perfect for us.

So this meeting marked the end of the first year of WOW and it's been a year I never could have anticipated. Seeing all of you amazing women together, so obviously enjoying each other and our times together gives me joy I can hardly express. It's heartwarming to see a few of us find the love of a good man. It's gotta be encouraging for those who still wait to see that there really are great guys out there. No matter what happens, we have been good for each other, we ladies. Growing and learning and having fun together. Life has been rich for me lately, having all of you in my life. It will be wondrous to see what happens next to each of you.