Two events last week – Meghan Markle’s baby shower and the latest episode of This is Us – got me thinking about how important our girl friends are and that there are many ways to reimagine our dreams

Meghan Markle and Her BFFs

Let me just say, I love Meghan Markle – she’s our American princess, and between her family drama and the British press creating feuds between her and sister-in-law Kate, and claiming that she is “difficult”, on top of which she is pregnant, there is a lot of stress in her life. And now is the time a gal needs her BFFs.

I loved that her BFFs closed ranks to protect her (and several made very positive statements to the press about their friend) and hosted a girls’ weekend for her baby shower.  Supposedly baby showers are just “not done” by the Royal Family, so we were thrilled to see Megan return to native soil and celebrate a time-honored American tradition.  Granted, it wasn’t your average baby show. There was the private plane provided by Amal Clooney, and the $75,000 suite where the shower was held, but then she doesn’t exactly travel with the Target crowd.

But the real power of coming together with BFFs isn’t about private planes and fancy suites – it’s about laughing, crying, sharing, and caring with your friends who have your back – and you’ve got theirs. A glass wine with your friends in someone’s living room, or regular a girls’ night out, makes us happier people and believe it or not, also healthier.

There are studies for example, that show that women with breast cancer have better survival rates when they have a strong support system of women friends.

And other studies have found that a key to happiness as we grow older, is having girlfriends we can laugh with and cry with too, about growing older.

I count myself very blessed to have some truly wonderful BFFs.  Several of them have moved away, but we keep our connections strong with regular phone calls, and wine and chats (we actually schedule a call at the end of the day and chat over wine) which sustains us between seeing each other in person. 

So if you’re feeling blue, call a friend. If you’re happy, call a friend. If a friend needs some extra support, call all your friends and rally around her. And if you have a private plane to whisk her off somewhere fab, do that too! If not, just open a bottle of wine and pass the chocolates.

Beth on This is Us Reimagines Her Dream

Like many of you, I am among the super fans of  the TV drama This is Us. And every time I wonder how the storylines can continue to be compelling, along comes an episode like last week’s where Beth Pearson (Susan Kelechi Watson) who is married to Randall, goes home to see her mother, brilliantly played by Phylicia Rashad and we get her back story.

So not to give away too much of the storyline, but Beth recently lost her high-powered executive position and she’s been at odds with herself. We’ve seen her on job interviews where she’s “too qualified” and really struggling with who she is and a loss in self-confidence. Well in last week’s episode, we discover that Beth’s passion and dream as a young girl was to be a prima ballerina – in fact she dreamed of being the first black prima ballerina in a major ballet company.  Well watch the episode to see what happened to derail her dream.  But here’s the great part.

She returns home and the episode ends with her in a ballet studio, talking to the owner telling her, “I want to work here.”

I practically stood up to cheer, because one of our missions at The Three Tomatoes is encourage women to find your passion and what makes you happy, and that midlife and beyond is a great time to reimagine your dreams. We are never too old! That’s a powerful message.

Let’s hope this works out for Beth Pearson.