My Sister, My Best Friends & My #SisterFriends

I am hanging out with my sister, Marianne, this week to help her out after a double procedure surgery she had recently. Little does she know that the rest of the week, I am preparing meals my way. {insert laugh} It’s a sister thing with us, who has the better recipe. In all honesty, we both do because the recipes are just that much different to be just as delicious as the other.

Which gave me the inspiration for today’s blog post. Sisters are your best friends and your best friends are comparable to a sister. Sister Friends are what I call these unique relationships. You know, those sister friends who leave you a voice mail when you need encouragement. Sister friends who laugh at your super lame jokes. Sister friends who send you a text at all hours of the day, just to check in. Just to check in. Sister friends who will go clothes shopping and tell you the truth, that outfit is just not going to happen. Or sister friends that invite you to hang out or just drop by your house to hang out. Just hang out.

This weekend I had an invitation to spend an afternoon with two artists in Boise that I don’t know well, but that changed. There was another gal in the group whihc rounded out my experience. The time was splurged at a number of places I had not yet visited in Garden City. We ended the day under my covered patio with the fan blowing to cool us off while the temperatures took it down a notch from a warm day. I learned the stories of what inspired these ladies on their art methods, what classes they have taken in the past and what gave them joy in their creations. I sautéed some of my chicken thighs that had marinated in tzatziki sauce, made the vegetarian in the group a salad from my garden and opened one of the bottles of wine I won at a fundraiser in May.

What I was reminded of was how important friendships are. Friendships that don’t waver despite words that came out wrong. Friendships that pick up where they left off years or months ago. Friendships that come with a broad smile of recognition from across a room that says hello again in the most special sort of way. What I discovered was how fortunate I am to have such friendships, old and new, close and casual, meaningful and even unintentional.

These relationships are what help us form the person we develop in to as we grow up. Ok, some of you will think, I’m never growing up. But you will despite your best laid plans. Because learning is growing and growing is evolving and evolving is a good thing.

I am so very grateful for my siblings and my good friends and my new friends that have been along in my journey of healing from the grief of losing Paul almost two years ago. Now I feel I am getting reacquainted with the person I was and have become after dealing with his death. I can help others in grief not so much because I “know” but because I felt that not so long ago. Grief is different for each person; it is how you plow through life in your journey that gets you to the other side.

I had a row boat that evolved in to a sailboat and I am loving the breeze again of peacefulness. The river boat was a surprise perk, just FYI. Sometimes you just have to go for it on the water…..

#grief #lifelesson #sisterfriend #friendship #itsachickthing