Enduring Years and Distance

Today was a good day.  My children were basically angels, start to finish.  The weather was amazing, I reconnected with old friends and can honestly say I didn’t have a single bad experience.  I had a handful of topics to write about tonight and actually had a hard time deciding which to settle on.  Even as I’m writing this my kids are continuing to fill my heart with inspiration.  But I just got off the phone with my cousin Lili and my topic has presented itself to me.

I grew up on the Big Island of Hawaii.  I was always surrounded by family and having cousins in abundance was something I took as a given.  When I was in second grade my parents bought a piece of property from my Aunt and Uncle and they built the house I would spend the rest of my childhood in.  The house was great, the property was amazing, but the best part was that it came with built in playmates in the form of three cousins, and eventually two more neighbor children that became fast friends.  The seven of us grew up like a wild pack, spending almost every day together, building forts, riding bikes, riding horses and camping out. 

For me, the highlight was my older cousin Lili.  She was three years older than me and so, of course, infinitely wiser in matters of the world, the heart, everything.  Lili taught me how to ride and care for horses and we spent countless days covered in dust and horse hair.  We had a club called the Powder Puff Girls in the hay barn where we kept a journal of one kind thing we did each day.  As we got older the conversations turned from forts to boys and we helped guide each other through the mine field of teenage love.  Too soon, it seemed, Lili left for college and I was the only girl left on the block.

Over the years we have seen each other rarely but have kept in touch.  Over the phone and by email we have shared the stories of how we met our husbands, fell in love and had babies.  The bond of sisterhood has reached over great distances and kept us close.

Tonight my phone rang and, seeing the Colorado area code, I hoped it was Lili.  Happily surprised I broke my own rule and talked at the table during dinner.  I don’t know how long it had been since we last spoke but we fell into the easy cadence of kid stories and catching up.  We laughed over the similarities of our precocious daughters, neither of whom seemed to have inherited their mother’s tom boy ways thus far, and mourned the fact they have yet to meet.  We talked over the sounds of our sons babbling and shared the changes in our work lives and contentment in our home lives.  Our goodbyes stretched long with promises of visits we both had every intention of keeping but knowing it would probably be a while before our next visit, whether in person or over the phone. 

I am lucky to have a family bond that has endured years and distance.  I wish I could see my cousin more often but I know I will never lose her.  Our solid connection, I imagine as close as that of any sisters, is a reassuring force in my life.  My happy reminder of it this evening is my something beautiful today.