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