three fates

I was born the middle daughter between two sisters. This identity as a sister is one of the first ones I knew or assigned meaning to. It meant that I always had a playmate. I can laugh, cry, and yell with my sisters. We weren’t big on making fun of one another and the few times when we did, we lived to regret it. When our parents’ relationship had its breakdowns, we sisters had each other. When we fought, and we did fight, we still knew we’d be sisters the next day, the next week, the next month, and we couldn’t fight in a way that would damage that with permanence. We taught each other, learned from each other, challenged each other, and believed in each other. We did not always like each other, but we certainly loved each other. That is the lens by which I enter conversations on sisterhood. It is not a relationship that ever asked me to be anything other than myself, but for them, I always wanted to be stronger, and wiser, and braver, so when I bought information or life experience to my sisters, it was from a solid and intentional place. And when I found that Sonia Sanchez quote about Sisterhood being a covering, when I heard her talk about her own relationship with her older sister, Patricia, I knew she understood, what I understood, that there is sacredness in such relationships that isn’t marked by ceremony but instead fte.