Thursday, May 21, 2015

gaining sisters

This is a bit of loose prose I put together at the end of my singlehood. Nothing very poetic or grand, I am just feeling nostalgaic tonight about the wonderful women God has put into my life since moving away from home - and the wonderful ones I grew up with there. I am thankful.




six years away from home -
(college and then work)
sharing living costs and life
with other girls on their own for the first time.

and now
I feel like I have so many more sisters
young energetic beautiful
weary questioning longing lonely
laughing hilarious different-from-me

sisters
who have cooked at the same stove
and scolded each other for leaving dirty dishes
or the door unlocked
and woken each other up in the middle of the night
with pain or laughter or stories of What he said to me

sisters
who have split the chores of emptying the trash
and cleaning up after the communal dog
and mowing the grass

sisters who have cried and sighed and cried again
late at night
and woken each other by preparing breakfast too noisily
and tried to figure out how to fix the garbage disposal together
and been creeped out by the same dark basement
and huddled on the same couch
when the house was cold and the heat bill already high

in six years I have accumulated
ten new roomie sisters
[Jordan, Emma, Tali, Jonte, Gigi, Bailey, Mel, Sara, Susanna, Jenny]
plus the eight baby sisters at the houses I boarded
[Lottie, Flora, Iona, and Opal, Cat, Ellie, Hazel, and Laura]
and their mothers, who became something like older sisters to me
[Mick and Heather]

and these non-related sisters
deepened my love for my blood sisters
[Vicki, Maria, Becki, Laura, Emili, Elsi, Abbi, Lydia, and Naomi]
and helped teach me how to love my sisters-by-marriage
[Brianna, Theresa, Claire]

and all of whom have reminded me
daily or weekly in their own ways
what sisters are for:

help and honesty, silliness and support, grace and giving


No comments:

Post a Comment