“For there is no friend like a sister in calm or stormy weather; to cheer one on the tedious way, to fetch one if one goes astray, to life one if one totters down, to strengthen whilst one stands.” ~Christina Rosetti
Took a walk with my sisters this afternoon and we attempted a selfie. Needed an extension on my arm. It wasn’t quite long enough, but looks like our smiles are still showing. Sisters are good for smiles.
In some ways, we took a walk back in time as we went to the farm where we grew up. When I was a young teen, I used to walk back into this wooded area every chance I got, especially in the fall when the trees started changing colors. There were several landmarks that I noted each time and so today I looked for those places.
This old tree is one of them. It was along the main path and at its base was a rock with a hole in it. I always stopped there to give that rock another look. Now the tree is old, surely in its last days since only a few branches showed leaves. The rock was still at the base of the tree. Well, of course it was. Rocks don’t get up and walk away, but the rock was covered with a thick layer of dirt and moss. I could have dug around and uncovered that hole in the rock, but I didn’t. I left it undisturbed. It wouldn’t have had the same wonder it had when I discovered it as a kid. No where near.
It was interesting to hear the landmarks my sisters had noted and remembered from their young days. A burr oak here. A persimmon tree there. And a creek or two. And what about that pond up on top of the hill? Or where was the hickory nut tree where we used to gather nuts in the fall?
We walked and walked. We talked and talked. We laughed and wondered why we weren’t seeing more deer. Guess we forgot about the talking and laughing. We looked up at the tree tops and down at the late season flowers. We began to wonder if we’d ever see civilization again, but we did see trees. Beautiful hardwood trees that are taking over the property. And we were glad we had shared memories.
My sisters and I are sharing a lot right now as we go through all Mom’s things in her house. Mom was the last one standing and in her house, she stored the memories of two extended families. Those memories are being passed down to us and to our children now. So many things with little or no market value but that are invaluable to us because in those things reside memories.
That’s what our walk did too. Rekindled memories of when we were teens and wandered through those trees. The trees weren’t the same. They were better since the hardwood trees are beginning to smother out the cedars. A beautiful place to walk and share with my sisters and to remember.
Do you have special places you can share with your siblings?
“God said you’ll need somebody to drive you crazy, to get you in trouble, to know you as no one else does, to love you when no one else will …And so He made a sister!”