Sisters

I just came from breakfast with my "sisters". For over a year now a bunch of us have been meeting for breakfast every monday morning. We drop our kids at school and head to Hursty's, a local restaurant. We can be two or 12, it's whoever can make it. This has become a ritual that many try not to miss. It is our stress-free way of starting the week. We hate p.d. days and holidays, if they fall on a monday, because they interfere with our breakfast. Our conversations usually run the gamut from our kids to school to work - you name it, nothing is off limits. It is 'our time'. We support and criticize. We laugh, we sympathize. We are sisters!
Very appropriately this is the first email I received this morning:

Sisters

A young wife sat on a sofa on a hot humid day, drinking
iced tea and visiting with her Mother.

As they talked about life, about marriage, about the
responsibilities of life and the obligations of adulthood,
the mother clinked the ice cubes in her glass

thoughtfully and turned a clear, sober glance upon her daughter.

"Don't forget your Sisters," she advised, swirling the tea
leaves to the bottom of her glass. "They'll be more important
as you get older. No matter how much you love your husband, no
matter how much you love the children you may have,

you are still going to need Sisters. Remember to go places with
them now and then; do things with them.

And remember that "Sisters" also means your girlfriends,
your daughters, and other women relatives too.
You'll need other women. Women always do."

"What a funny piece of advice!" the young woman thought.

"Haven't I just gotten married?
Haven't I just joined the couple-world?
I'm now a married woman, for goodness sake! A grownup.
Surely my husband and the family we may start will be all I need to make my life worthwhile!"

But she listened to her Mother.

She kept contact with her Sisters and made more women friends each year.
As the years tumbled by, one after another,
she gradually came to under-stand that her Mom really knew what she was talking about.
As time and nature work their changes and their mysteries upon a woman,
Sisters are the mainstays of her life.

Times passes.
Life happens.
Distance separates.

Children grow up.
Love waxes and wanes.
Hearts break.
Careers end.

Jobs come and go.
Parents die.
Colleagues forget favors.
Men don't call when they say they will.
BUT, Sisters are there.
No matter how much time or how
many miles are between you,
a Sister is never farther away than your
needing her can reach.

When you have to walk that lonesome valley, and you have to
walk it for yourself, your Sisters will be on the valley's rim,
cheering you on, praying for you, pulling for you,
intervening on your behalf, and waiting with open arms
at the valley's end.
Sometimes, they will even break the rules and

walk beside you.
Or come in and carry you out.
Our daughters, sisters, sisters-in-law, and "girlfriends" bless our lives!

Our worlds wouldn't be the same without them, and neither would we.
When we began this adventure called womanhood, we had no
idea of the incredible joys or devastating sorrows that lay ahead.
Nor did we know how much we would need each other.

Every day, we need each other still.
Tomorrow we will need each other even more.