Phoenix

My sister Kim is leaving for Phoenix Arizona this morning to be with her daughter, Stacie when she is induced into labor with her baby girl.  I sure will miss her. 

Kim and I are really close and depend on each to some extent like sisters who are close do.  I can't imagine life without her.  We are like best friends - but closer.  There isn't anything that she can't tell me, or me her.  In fact, because we are sisters with that unbreakable bond, we would protect each other to the death.  Funny thing, I never thought about it before quite like that. 

There are nearly four years between us, so when I was sixteen and running around thinking that the universe revolved around me, she was this 12 year old kid who to some extent thought I was the cat's meow.  Of course, she would never have let me know that then.  Instead, she retaliated in sheer hostility which was her way of coping with our parent's divorce and basically not getting some of her needs met.  It's too bad that I didn't have the insight back then to reach out to her.  Back then there seemed like such a gap in our ages, and besides I was a teenager and life was all about me - remember?  I was driving a car and she was still playing with dolls; I was dating and she was annoying like kid sisters are. 

As we have gotten older and truly come of age, that gap has become non-existant and so has the hostility.  Maturity and understanding has replaced self doubt, low self esteem and bitterness - on both our parts.     

Today, my sister's well-being and happiness is just as important to me as my own.  And I don't know if I recognized that before either, or just took it for granted. 

Regardless, she is leaving for a week and that's a long time when you are used to talking to each other daily on our commute home from work, and stopping for coffee on occasion, or meeting at a local store to shop together.  It all sounds so trivial, but that is what life is made up of; trivial little moments shared with loved ones.  Some of those moments will be remembered consciously, while others are stored unconsiously in memory banks, but each one an important molecule in a relationship.  

Enough of the deep thought!  Two things are for sure:  37 years ago I would never have believed that I'd be missing Kim before she has even left; and my cell phone bill is sure going to be cheaper!  Thank God for email!