Who Doesn't Want To Live Deliciously?

Tuesday night, four of us settled into our cozy chairs in the back of the shop. A small group, a quiet corner, and exactly the right energy for what the evening turned into.

None of us had finished the book. And honestly? That didn't matter one bit.

What mattered was that we wanted to be in the company of other women. That was enough to show up for.

Living Deliciously by Florence Given was the book of the session, and it is not another hollow call to choose happiness. It's not a "good vibes only" pep talk dressed up in pretty typography (although the artwork and book itself are STUNNING). Living Deliciously is something more honest than that. Florence Given asks women to stop. To actually stop. To give themselves permission to rest, to create space, and to let joy find its way in. There's a difference between being told to feel good and being invited to feel free. This book understands that.

Courtney came prepared. She'd tagged passages in the audio version throughout her listen so we could replay the moments that moved her and let those be our jumping-off points for conversation. It was a generous, thoughtful way to lead, and it opened the door to exactly the kind of conversation this club was made for.

As we moved through the night, the side conversations that held the real weight. The lessons we're still learning. The hills we're still climbing. The things we've carried quietly until we found a room where we could set them down for a while, the way Florence was asking us to all along. 

That's what Empowered Femmes is, at its core: a safe place to tell the truth about where you actually are.

Our next read is Emotional Labour by Rose Hackman, and if Tuesday night is any indication, we're going to have a lot to say about this book. Hackman takes a deep journalistic look at the invisible, uncompensated work women perform every day, from managing the emotions of everyone around them at home and at work, to being told to smile more on a bad commute. She doesn't just name the problem, she pushes toward something more: pathways for real change. It feels like the natural next conversation after Living Deliciously. One book says give yourself permission to rest. The next asks: why did we need permission in the first place?

We meet on June 23rd at 7PM. Come as far as you get, trust us - it's not only about the book. 

Until we meet again.