A picture is worth a thousand words

 

These orchards extend as far as the thin dark tree along this line, said Didi. I nodded thinking should I pretend to understand and nod along or ask clarifying specific questions because let's face it there were a lot of thin dark trees that seemed to fit along the line she was pointing at. I decided to hold my horses and questions for now.

It has been a while since we had gotten a chance to talk to each other without interruptions from people around us or life in general. There was always something more important to do than to listen to each other's inanities or ramblings. I missed having the luxury of rolling my eyes at something my sister said as I was talking or listening to her on the other end of the line in one of our long long conversations on the phone. With life and increasing demands on each of our times from spouses and kids and work and did I say life? Those long conversations became shorter and less frequent. The problem with that is then you start thinking about what is worth sharing and what is not worth another person's time. Now in personal or sisterly conversations that is the most effective way to kill any and all things important. Inanities is what leads to some very tangential and deep discussions. My sister is one person who has and will call me out on all my BS. I have always vowed to return the favor. We are each other's mirror. We are the ones to tell each other if we are turning into our worst nightmares of wives or moms or future mom-in-laws. Something our spouses may be too busy to notice or worse too wise to point out!

All that usually sprang from long random winding conversations that start from nowhere and lead to nowhere but cover all the important stops of checkin. I could always hear it in her voice if she was happy or excited or if she was scaling darker depths. I pulled her leg and she pulled mine and we had smart rejoinders for each other. We fell into out patterns. As long as I could do this, we could deal with all other uncertainties of our lives. 

I missed that. I missed her. Nothing had happened and everything had in these past years.

So now just for these minutes I wanted to listen to her rambling on about her new adventure that she had picked up. This horticulture that is her current baby. I have not seen her this animated and this alive in years. I had not seen her period. I was so busy just being everything and everyone that I had taken this for granted. This bond. While the bond was still there, it had rusted. It needed oiling and some airing.

To see someone you love and care for wake up and come alive in the process of discovering themselves is something to cherish. May be in one of these inane long winding conversations we will find our childhood and adolescence again. We will find the bond that we both love and see it come alive.

I follow her and her dog as she talks non-stop about what all she is going to grow. I have not heard a single detail but all that I need to. I know that this is going to continue for the next few days as we fill each other with all that we have been missing. All the seeds that were stored in the dark ready to burst into life.