So my birthday is right around the corner…. It usually gets all mushed together with Thanksgiving and so I usually just let it slide and forgo any celebrating. It’s too hard to get everyone together. But this year I decided that I wanted myself some sort of birthday, nothing big but something…. So I sent my sisters a message. Letting them know that the only thing I wanted for my birthday was to spend one day with all three of them because we haven’t done that in about a decade. No hubbies or boyfriends or girlfriends or kids just me and my sisters like it was waaaayyyy back when.
They came through for me…. My sister Mandi flew all the way in from Florida and Jodi and Sherri both found time to come into Salt Lake and spend the day with me minus kids and men. And the day was fantastic which I will absolutely get to in a minute but I don’t want to move on from this moment because really for me…. This was the part that moved me… .this was the part that I sort of relished in and rolled over and over in my heart. Doesn’t seem like much but life is busy….. really busy…. Especially when you have children and families and jobs and stuff. And the very act of these girls taking a moment to put their lives on pause just so they could be with me…. Well…. It made me feel valued in the most amazing way…. Mandi gave up vacation time, parted with money for a plane ticket and left Florida weather to fly into snow for me… her sister…. Who moans and complains to her more often than I should and lectures her when she starts getting down on herself.
And Jodi…. Her girls had a birthday party that day…. And her hubby took care of it for her so she could come. Doesn’t sound like much of a sacrifice but this woman is like Mother Teresa to her children…. She is always there for them… and is the glue that holds that house together so to have an entire day with her was an amazing amazing gift…
And Sherri…. She is the organizer to a breast cancer fundraiser up in Park City that was taking place the very next day. She had shirts to make and goodie bags to get together and last minute tasks that needed to get done. Plus she is a mom and works but she still found time to come see me.
Really folks…. Doesn’t matter really what happened after that… because the most beautiful part to me…. The gift was really their time… and I treasured it… I savored it.
You know to have all three of my sisters with me for an entire day was like some miracle of epic proportions…. And when it was first happening I had plans up the wazoo for us…. Wanting to squish in five million things in those 10 little hours….
But as it got closer I just decided to let go of the time frames and schedules and just let it all unfold the way we wanted.
People ask me what we did that day and the truth of the matter is we didn’t do much. We went to a thrift store, we ate, we went to a home décor store and we drove…. Sounds boring I know…. But the thing that I loved about the entire day was the memory for me will not be held in any event but in the time spent together…..
The laughing we did up and down the aisles of the thrift store, the ooing and aahing over the Christmas decorations, the gabbing and plans for what we want to do for the holidays, the joking and laughing over nothing that was even remotely important.
I love these women….they are my sisters but if we were not related I would choose them as my friends.
We have been through a lot especially this last year or two…..
But with them it is the one place I can absolutely be myself. I do not think about how what I say will be perceived, I do not think about what they are thinking of me, I do not think of anything when I am with them except for that moment. There is a freedom in being with a group of women that know you so deeply…. Your inside and your out regardless of what image you choose to put out to the world.
They know I love tuna casserole, they know what I looked like coming out of a jail cell, they know what I said the day Brayden was born, they know how it felt when my dad died, they rescued me when I was homeless, they know my anger, my frustration, my sadness, without me even having to explain it.
They think I can do anything
They tell me when I am wrong
They disagree
They agree
They laugh
They hug
They yell
Unfiltered access is what we have together.
The last day Mandi was here we were sitting on the couch watching Little Women and it made me realize how much I missed just sitting on a couch with her. She is a comfort to me….
They all are
And I don’t care what they do or don’t do… or how mad I get at them or how irritated they are with me… or how much good or bad…. I love them…. It is an automatic response inside of me…. The most effortless thing I do next to being a mom to Brayden.
They are the most amazing, brilliant, wonderful, funny, sassy, intelligent, beautiful, sexy, kick ass humans I know…. Seriously…. And I am amazed that I get to call them my sisters. Our family is tore up from the floor up…. We could be our own Jerry Springer show and have enough content to last an entire 4 seasons. We have all made mistakes, all screwed up brilliantly, all done things we wish we could take back….and all wish that maybe our family didn’t make us wince as much as It does…. But the fact is I wouldn’t trade it… any of it…. Because it brought me them and I love them like they are my daughters.
I said on Facebook that I hoped they knew how much I adore them and one of my friends commented and said “They will if you tell them”
But the words adore don’t really touch what I really mean and so I hope in some way…. they will always see it in my eyes and hear it in my voice…. And know how grateful I am for the gift that they gave me this year as an early birthday present…..
I cherish it….like a diamond… in my soul.
Sometimes we think we have to find the perfect gift, and we look for that one item that will be just what they want but what I realized this year is that sometimes the only thing we really need to give in order to make a difference is our time….that is the true treasure
So thank you girls….
I love you sissies… you are the BOMB DIGGETY…. I really mean that.
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