Springboards

Sisterhood

I was thinking about what makes the relationship between my sister and me so strong.  We certainly don’t live in each other’s pockets.  With busy lives we may not even talk for a month.  But I know that if I was in trouble she would be there for me and I am sure she knows that I would be there for her.  We understand each other and we get on so well. 

In a family of six – my parents, my two brothers and my sister, the boys shared one bedroom and for fourteen years, the girls shared another.  My sister and I had our ups and downs as kids. There were times when we would have a line down the middle of the bedroom and she wasn’t allowed on my side and I wasn’t allowed on hers.  Luckily I had the side with the door and I was able to deny her permission to cross my floor space to go in or out of the bedroom, then puff with indignation when she broke the agreement and put her foot down on my side of the room. 

Yet it was this childhood time that formed the foundation of what we have today.  As children, every night we talked.  We talked about our day and everything that had gone right or wrong in it.  We shared everything openly and freely. We kept each other’s secrets, even when we were having a scrap about whatever long forgotten issue that was important at the time.  We trusted one another and we communicated.  We were sisters in every sense of the word.  This trust and communication continues today and is one of those things in my life of which I have certainty.

I have an excellent, loving, trusting relationship with my brothers and I also know that we would be there for each other.  Somehow though, it’s not quite the same.  They are guys.  We didn’t share a bedroom.  We didn’t share our deepest secrets night after night over all those years.