Sisters

by Shinazy

I have a younger sister and of course, that made me ‘Big Sister'.  Yes, I bossed her, taught her, protected her, and learned all her secrets and dreams. 

We did all the things sisters do: dressed each other’s dolls, we wore each other’s sweaters, hid under each other’s bed covers reading fan magazines.  We lived together for only 14 years (the math: me 3 when sister arrived on the scene, me gone after I graduated from high school).  When I think about it, 14 years is a very short time to know someone as deeply as I know my sister.  Or so, I thought.

What I’m realizing now, is that there’s much about my sister, Malati, that I am just now discovering and there is much we have in common that was previously unknown to me.

You and I have read her stories over the past three weeks on Wisdom Wednesday.  During this time, you and I have come to know her, and she has revealed aspects of her personality that I read and exclaimed, “Hey, that’s me, too.”

Last Wednesday, in “What’s So Great About Mentoring?” she said, “So, as we now know is typical for me, I just plunged in" . . .  That line describes me, too!  As I read her words, I thought of my earliest memory of when I-plunged-in.  It was more literal then figurative - It was when I learned to swim, or rather how I learned to stop drowning.

I was 9.  At a motel in Redding.  It was midweek and the pool area was empty, just me and all that fatal, forbidding water.  For the previous five years, my aunt had tried to teach me to swim and for five summers, I drowned.  But, on that day, it was time for me to plunge in and so I did.  Standing at the deep end, alone, toes creeping closer and closer to the edge until only my heels remained connected to the safe solid earth.  Well, I am here telling you this story, so there was no drowning that day.  And because of the success of that plunge I repeated that behavior – We, the sisters, repeat that behavior.

Starting this blog is my latest plunge: one day I'm talking to my daughter, who encouraged my wild thought of fulfilling a dream to write. A short week later, I'm announcing to my sister that Bitchin’ Ol’ Boomer Babe was born.

For me this blog has become more than a way to express thoughts and tell stories.  It is a place for me to learn more about my sister . . . about being sisters.

  photo by Shinazy