What Sisters Do

It never occurred to my parents that their four daughters would one day find themselves spread out, far apart.  Theirs was a community of proximity, where family lived & held tightly together.   Mother worked hard at that tether.  She watched for fraying & tatters, applying lavish doses of nurture & love (sometimes with a sharp tongue) to ensure her girls were a permanent thread in the fabric that comprised our collective lives.  She took no easy road & made no lazy effort to gather & foster her brood.

Today we four sisters live miles - - states & countries - - apart.  Yet proximity is not an issue.  Funny how easy it is to remain connected when one purposes to do so.

Two weeks from today we four shall gather in Arizona where #2 sister, Barbara resides.  #3 sister, Carol will make her way from Mexico, while #1 sister, Dolores & I (forever #4, the baby) fly the friendly skies from here in WA State to join them.  For the better part of a week we will do what sisters do, at least these sisters - seize the opportunity to fortify bonds, checking for ourselves those frays or tatters that occupied our mother.  We will laugh & chatter, pour over God's word together, shop, munch & make memories.  It is to honor each other, but to honor mother & daddy too.  They would be proud.

So am I.

Sisters are different flowers 

from the same garden.  

~Author Unknown

 

She is your mirror, shining back at you 

with a world of possibilities.  

She is your witness, who sees you at your worst 

and best, and loves you anyway.  

She is your partner in crime, 

your midnight companion, someone who knows 

when you are smiling, even in the dark.  

She is your teacher, your defense attorney, 

your personal press agent, even your shrink.  

Some days, she's the reason you 

wish you were an only child.  

~Barbara Alpert