"Sweet, crazy conversations full of half sentences, daydreams and misunderstandings more thrilling than understanding could ever be."
- Toni Morrison, Beloved
My sister Lynn knows me inside and out...she has seen me at my best, at my worst, and everything in between! She is one of the rocks of my foundation and I know - with absolute certainty - that she loves me no matter what. We are very different and don't always fully 'get' each other's passions. She is fact and science and I am faith and religion. But we also have much in common, including a lifetime of shared memories and experience, and a history of being there for each other through thick and thin. I often find myself thinking "I must share this with Lynn", and without hesitation I pick up the phone to relay a silly experience I know will tickle her funnybone the same way it did mine, or when something has ruffled my feathers and I am in need of her ear to listen to me vent. Yes, of course sometimes we fight, as do all sisters, but it doesn't pull us apart or have a lasting effect on our relationship. So I sing thanks for my amazing sister, for her strengthening, uplifting, challenging, comforting and oh-so-familiar blessed presence in my life...
"There were once two sisters
who were not afraid of the dark
because the dark was full of the other's voice
across the room,
because even when the night was thick
and starless
they walked home together from the river
seeing who could last the longest
without turning on her flashlight,
not afraid
because sometimes in the pitch of night
they'd lie on their backs
in the middle of the path
and look up until the stars came back
and when they did,
they'd reach their arms up to touch them
and did."
- Jandy Nelson, The Sky is Everywhere
I end with The End from the Beatles' Abbey Road album...growing up, Lynn and I spent many an hour with this album...singing at the top of our lungs with glee and gusto to the medley of songs like Polythene Pam, Mean Mr. Mustard and She Came in Through the Bathroom Window...and trying (always unsuccessfully) to predict the jarringly abrupt ending to I Want You.
"and in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make"
I love you, my sister.
3 comments:
Lovely post. I love that song; I've been listening to the Beatles this week in honor of the John Lennon anniversary.
And thanks for letting me know about your accident. I am SO sorry but also so relieved that you are all okay. How scary that must have been. Glad your guardian angels were looking out for you! Talk soon, Annie
Hey sister, love the post. That song does bring back memories! Just you and me jumping on the couch and listening to Abbey Road. Although we often listened it with Phyll too. Good times, for sure.
Hi Anne, wonderful post and one that I can relate. I have a similar relationship with my sister and I am so thankful to have her in my life too.
Like Annie, I'm also sorry to hear that you got into an accident. And for your car to have been totalled, I'm very relieved to hear that you are all okay. Feel better and take care.
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