S I S T E R S

by Rumour Miller on May 15, 2017

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I remember our first summer together as a family of Five.  Piper was four, Davilyn two and Quinn was brand new.  I loved almost every moment of those warm summer months.  The three of you weren’t old enough to fight yet.  You didn’t talk back to me or to each other and you spent most of your time being each other’s best friends.  Even Quinn, who was hardly moving yet.

The four of us spent many afternoons in our back yard while Daddy was at work.  We enjoyed the warmth of the sun and the water from the hose.  You laughed and ran around and there were very few tears.  A skinned knee or protesting your naps, maybe but there were no tears from fighting with each other.

And I remember that I was not playing referee while you fought.  Or trying not to intervene so that you could figure out the solution on your own

I get little time with all of you at home together.  The days seem long but the years are short.  As we head into this next summer when Piper is 11, Davilyn will be 9 and Quinn 7, I am fully aware how few years we all have left together before you start going off on your own journeys and adventures.  Eight more summers and Piper will be off to university.  And we will miss her.  You will miss her.  Quinn, you will just be starting high school when she is gone.  Davilyn, you will just start driving when she goes to university and although you will be filled with happiness that you don’t have to share the car keys with her, you will miss her.

You will miss her.  You will miss each other.  Our family will change and it will be exciting and fun but it will also be sad.  We will miss this.

And so it makes me sad when I see how much you fight and bicker.  And even though I know it is completely normal and expected even… my heart breaks knowing that there will come a day when you will miss each other and I will miss all of you being together.  You don’t see it now but someday you will.  And even though I know that all sisters and siblings fight and bicker, I can’t help but let my mind wander to that summer in 2010 when you didn’t fight and bicker.

Life was never quiet and serene but it was oh so good.

As you get older, I am much more aware of the sand flowing through the hour-glass.  Time slipping by.  You all have your own friends and your own interests and your own talents and desires.  Our life is hectic and busy.  And I want you to be aware of how you are spending your time together. Instead of listening to you fighting, I want to hear you sitting at the dining room table playing cards or a board game.  Or listening to you laughing with each other outside in the pool.  I even like listening to you all sing in unison to the song playing on the radio when we are driving.

We get very little time together in this life and before I know it you will each have jobs and boyfriends.  You will wear a graduation cap and sit with your classmates as you celebrate graduating from high school and leaving home.  You will be happy and full of joy, but you will also know in your heart how nothing is going to be the same.  And that is when it will become all too real that you cannot go back in time to the summer of 2017 and spend more time playing and laughing with your sisters instead of fighting with them.  Talking with them instead of arguing.

You will miss this, and I just want you to know that.

* picture taken in Kananaskis, Alberta July 2010

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