Biologically I have only one wonderful sister but I am blessed with many sisters of choice for which I am profoundly grateful. It has been only since my husband’s passing five years ago that I became aware of the richness of sisterhood that I had been missing in my prior life. I left a coven of soul sisters in New Mexico with their encouragement and blessings and wasn’t sure I would be able to find that here but I have been pleasantly surprised that it has been so easy to reconnect with members of my soul family.
Certainly I had girl/women friends growing up and as a wife and mother. Usually these were because we shared a common interest or activity. It became natural to associate with women whose husbands were friends of my husband or children and in such we could all share activities. While we had many things in common, with a couple of exceptions, I can’t say many of them were would what I would call sisters in light of my new awareness. Compared to the depth of the relationships I have today, these were just aquaintenances.
For me sisterhood implies a deep bond of love, appreciation, acceptance, and caring at a soul level. We are there for each other to honestly mirror, chide, and encourage each other to be our best, most authentic self and to grow in depth and awareness that we are unable to do apart. We may not be our sister’s keeper but we can be each other’s greatest supporter and champion as we grow into oneness together.
While previous friendships may have had an undercurrent of competition and withholding truths that did not reflect the image we wished to portray, my sisters today have moved past that limited vision and are reflective of the higher awareness of who we really are and who we wish to be. By reaching out to a sister and sharing our truth we are able to minister to each other and to grow together in love. It is wholeness being manifested in the bond of sisterhood.
I have been reading M. Scott Peck’s book on community building and he talks about appreciating the richness we bring to each other with our differences. It is in accepting and valuing each other in our own unique ways that we forge the bonds that create community. I am fortunate to be participating in a living, growing community of sisters in the truest sense of the word and for that I am profoundly grateful.
Penny
