BOOTH! ;)

A friend posted some old college pics on facebook today.  They were quite horrid.

Literally.

I was sitting at the computer looking at them and exclaiming over the hair and the clothes and WHAT ON EARTH WAS I THINKING just general look of myself...........but oh my they made me smile.

It seems so long ago, like those days, those times happened to another person.  They are so far removed from my life today and only two of those girls do I talk to with any regularity.  And as much as I claim to have a disdain for technology (so says the blogger and facebook user :) I love that I can see pictures of my long ago friends with their babies and their spouses and their growing kids.....it makes my heart happy, for once upon a time they were my every day, my roommates, my Hicks dining companions, my fellow backwoods celebrants :), my smoke drivers, my Eat N Park/Mustang enthusiasts, just my every day.

And one of these girls - my Skirt Sister, my more than every day, more like every moment friend - taught me what it means to have a tried and true friend, she initiated me into the sisterhood.  Before then, before Karen I had friends but not like Karen :)

I didn't know the bond of girls, the bond of almost women.  I loved the shopping together, get ready together , living life together.  Karen was like an open book, there was nothing that was held back and it seemed completely natural and easy.  I can't remember how exactly we met other than a bunch of people were going into "town" to see a movie perhaps?

And, to be honest, I can hardly remember all the moments in between.  However I do remember when she told me she was leaving school - when I think back, I can't believe the courage that decision must have taken.

I couldn't quite believe it.

My every day, my tried and true, my initiator - gone, a year and a half early.

I know, I am making it sound quite dramatic when it was just a shifting of course, a decision that had to be made that led to a good life for Karen - those pictures of Alan that were kept hidden in a drawer became a real life husband and children and life.

And when she left she left an opening.  A space that wasn't there before and I made new friends, new tried and trues that I am still in contact with today - women that I treasure and love.  And I can't help but think that without Karen there wouldn't have been the space, the room for those girls, for those friendships.  That Karen taught me a bit how to love sisters, how to love being a sister.

And so when I see those pictures from long ago........I smile.

My heart fills with gratitude.

My heart remembers the girl, the almost woman who taught me to be a sister.

And I remember and am reminded of all those that came after, those that have come alongside me, that proclaim me to be a sister.

How I love and am honored to be a part of the sisterhood :)

Thanks, Karen, for first showing me how..................