Something significant stopped this week. Something I didn't expect but consciously chose when the time came. Something that was once incredibly important but became little by little tiring, uninspiring, inconvenient.

I stopped going to my women's ministry meetings at church. Last 'semester', I led a book club and participated in the core leader's group, but this semester, with the travel to Little Rock and the conscious burrowing into parenting teen obligations at a tricky time, I withdrew. Wow, unbelievable: withdrawn from women's ministry, their issues, faces, exploration, transparency (in some cases), friendship.

But after six years of serving there, I feel nostalgic but ... liberated. I can travel more with my husband, focus on the friends I have, spend more time with my children before the big change happens, hunker into my running or guitar. Yes, unashamedly, this feels good. Although community is important, it can come in various ways or seasons.

Confession: I'm not sad, or ready to admit it.