Remember your sisters

I met with my younger sister, a couple of days ago, and after we had spent the day together,we came up with some really good ideas for our book we had decided to write.  It was an exciting time for me since I could definitely see my characters and how they might act.   

I can fall back on my history with my sisters as young children and then as grown women. Some of them moved away, some came back to our home town.  This made for some interesting relationships with each one.  I was closer to some, not so close with others.

This kind of back and forth, ebb and flow, with them  as we grew up was very interesting.  The "book" begins with two characters, sisters, and after writing a couple of pages as an introduction, I recalled something I had read last year that brought it all together for me.  And hopefully will make me a better writer.

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..'

'Remember that 'sisters' means ALL the women... your girlfriends, your daughters, and all your 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 understand that her mother 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...