Some conversations ease into the room the way a good sip does. Unhurried, warm and ready to reveal something true.
That is the energy and authenticity Dr. Sarah Combs, CEO of Metropolitan Ministries, brought into our Literary Sips Sipdown, where books, life, community and sisterhood meet in unexpected and inspiring ways.
What’s your go-to sip?
Pinot Noir. But if I’m feeling bold, a dirty martini. Bruised and always with blue cheese olives.
I laughed and told her the blue cheese olives sealed our sisterhood.
Absolutely. And “bruised” just means shaken so vigorously it clouds the drink. A martini with a backstory.
We shared a laugh, settled in with our sips and let the conversation pour.
What are you reading right now?
Bridges Out of Poverty. It helps me understand the systems we’re trying to change and the people within them. I’m drawn to books that challenge rather than comfort.
You’ve described your relationship with reading as a love-hate one. Why?
I adore books. But leadership, motherhood and community work demand emotional bandwidth. Sometimes my brain wants a snack, not a banquet.
And then a book pulls me back into the deep end, like The Black Swan, which challenged me unexpectedly and brought me back to serious reading.
The kind that stretches you, unsettles you and makes you rethink everything.
What childhood books shaped you?
Judy Blume, especially Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Every girl from a small town read that book like it was oxygen. A lifeline to feelings we didn’t yet have words for.
And Little House on the Prairie. I’m a farmer’s daughter from Colorado, the pinto bean capital of the world. Laura Ingalls Wilder felt like me. Her world felt like home.
Reading was my escape. The first place I ever traveled.
Has a book ever spoken to you differently as your life has evolved?
Absolutely. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
The first time I read it, I saw romance. Later, I saw sisterhood.
The loyalty, the complexity, the knowingness between women. Books age with us. What we notice changes because we change.
Your work is emotionally heavy. How do you protect your heart?
By staying present but not porous. There is a difference between compassion and collapse. Humor helps. So do my kids, my faith and the ability to laugh at myself. You can’t serve if you’re numb. But you also can’t serve if you are drowning.
How do you navigate the chapters you didn’t expect or didn’t want?
With curiosity. Resistance magnifies pain. Curiosity reveals purpose.
I ask myself, what is this chapter here to teach me? It’s a mindset that has saved me more than once.
Finally, if you were writing your autobiography, what would the title be?
Expect the Unexpected.
Because the chapters that have shaped me most were the ones I didn’t script and didn’t always feel fully prepared for.
Women often wait until things feel 95% perfect before stepping forward. Meanwhile, life is offering opportunities at 50%.
If you wait for perfect, you miss your window.
Many of us also struggle to feel deserving when good things start happening. Those chapters taught me to say, I’ve earned this. I deserve this. I’m stepping into it.
Life rarely follows the script we write, but those unscripted moments are the ones that have shaped me as a mother, a wife, a daughter and the person I have become.
Expect the Unexpected. A fitting title for a woman whose life reminds us that every chapter, chosen or unexpected, holds meaning and purpose.
And that is the quiet magic of Literary Sips. Finding beauty in the chapters that shape us and in the people we meet along the way, especially the ones we never saw coming.
Julie Edelman is the creator of Literary Sips, a bestselling author, media personality and former C-suite advertising executive whose passions celebrate reading, sisterhood and the beauty of unexpected chapters.
Julie lives in St. Petersburg, Florida. She is inspired every day by her son, Luke, who is the heart of every chapter of her life.
To learn more about Julie, click here.
To learn more about Dr. Combs and Metropolitan Ministries, click here.