"Never were there such devoted sisters."

I am taking a break today from my normal theme of how much I love trees, mountains, and wilderness.  I've been in the city for the past few weeks and am now enjoying a few days in my hometown.  Staying at home always provides lots of fodder for thought as well as a chance to get around to projects that never seem to get done.  Today's is backing up my currently sluggish laptop.  In the process I found a file of pictures entitled "Sisters!".  I have two sisters, one older and one younger.  My first thought as I looked at the pictures was, "She looks so young!"  And the second was, "I look so young."  One woman once said, "A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost."  That seems right.  We aren't peas in a pod or three of a kind, but from where I sit in my childhood home I feel the need to pay homage in an ode to my sisters, mostly in pictures.

Beth, Eve, and I cheering in & for Germany in the 2008 Euro Championship

Beth is my older sister.  I remember watching her get ready for dances, make oboe reeds, and move away to college.  We tease her about how she psychoanalyzes her pets and how much she likes chocolate.  She also bought me makeup when I turned fourteen and showed me how to put it on.  Beth likes pink so much that I don't wear pink at all.  I visited her at college where she showed me around campus and let me attend her classes. I visited her when she lived in Germany.  She is my confidant when I have a truly sticky problem.

Discussing directions in Germany

Eve and I were the last two at home.  We played dress up together well past the point when we would owning up to such behavior to our peers.  I stood right behind her every year on Christmas morning as we paraded out to see what Santa brought.  We harmonized around the piano and she wore my clothes when I didn't want her to.  When we went shopping the saleswomen thought we were twins.  I moved away for college before she started high school.  I didn't come home much for the next four years.  I graduated from college a month before Eve graduated from high school.

Eve, me, and my mom when I finished my undergraduate work in 2004

Eve graduating in English in 2009

I had never planned on staying at my same university for graduate school, but as events unfolded it became my best option.  That remains one of the best choices that I've ever made.  Not because I spent several months in London conducting research, fell in love with running, or lost fifteen pounds that year.  But Eve and I became roommates and Sunday evenings found us singing along with her guitar and becoming friends again.  People still got confused who was who.  That was seven years ago.  I now live several states away and she is deep into her career as an English teacher.  Only our nieces and nephews get us confused now.  I spent an evening with her this weekend.  She taught me a few chords on the guitar since without her I need to learn to play myself.  She once drove eight hours to come backpacking with me.

Trading foot rubs in the tent

Of all the things I miss in moving to Montana--I miss Eve most of all.   After all, there are very few people who think it's fun to do this:

Yes, sometimes we just smile pretty for the camera.

Thanksgiving 2010

If we ever start a band this will be our album cover

"A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves--

a special kind of double." 

-Toni Morrison