Blood is thicker than water
I’ve been meaning to write a post on my un-birthday weekend for the entire week, but for reasons many and various it just doesn’t seem to be happening. It will soon, I promise. What has been on my mind though is family.
When everyone left last weekend, after heaving a sigh of relief that everything was all in one piece and I could flop on the sofa and recover from the weekend, I felt a bit of a wrench at seeing all these people I loved leaving, and found that it was a bit more of a wrench than I was expecting, which I can only attribute to my sister.
Many of my friends often view families and siblings in particular as a test of their patience, and as something visited upon you by fate that by and large you just have to tolerate for most of your life. I suppose that in that respect I am exceedingly lucky. My sister and I grew up very close, and seemed to have grown more so over the years. We seem to have weathered many of the worst bumps that life can throw at you and know each other inside out.
If ever I receive news of any description, the first person I ring will be my sister, knowing that she will instinctively understand my reaction and will talk me down from whatever state of madness I have found myself in, encourage me or give me the boot in the backside I (quite often) richly deserve.
She’s the one person from whom I will unconditionally accept criticism, because she knows me so well that there’s little point to pretending that I had or would react in any other way than the one she expects. She knows how to draw me out of dark moods and when to be silly and remind me of the small things that can make me laugh until the tears run down my face and my ribs ache from laughing so hard. She cringes madly when I sing along to tunes in the car and yet I know if I sneak a sideways peek, she’ll be mouthing the words too.
She reminds me of all th incalculably stupid things I have done during my life and when I feel down about them also reminds me that in the short time I’ve been alive that I achieved some absolutely AMAZING things too. She reminds me that it’s okay to be the person I am and the person I want to be, and that it’s okay not to want to be ordinary but to strive for the impossible. She helps me to believe that I can make the impossible happen every single day.
She drags me out of my comfortable shoes and into shoes I wear once a year so that we can look pretty when we go out. She doesn’t insist on hanging off my arm to prove that she loves me. She understands the value in knowing when to shut the hell up and give someone space and when to stick her oar in.
She’s generous, intelligent, educated, articulate and hilariously funny. She doesn’t take herself too seriously and she doesn’t take me too seriously either. She’s ridiculously beautiful and never realises how much.She’s my best friend who I could rely on to be there for me if I was dangling off the side of a cliff in Outer Mongolia. I cannot imagine that I have ever done anything in my life to deserve having a sister tso wonderful that thinking about her makes me teary because I miss her so much. You’re my rock. This is just to say – Lu, I love you. Merry Christmas. xx
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