This past weekend was more than a weekend. It seriously was a life event. I had the opportunity to travel to Kansas City with my sister, her husband, and my mom and witness the marriage of my nephew to his beautiful bride. And to witness the merging of two families that are now truly connected from this time forward.

My sister and I, years ago always said, we wanted children and we had big dreams for them: Dreams of prosperity, happiness, a good career and ultimately finding that special someone. It was a dream come true to see that continue to unfold for her this past weekend. You see, my sister is my very best friend in the world. When she is happy, I am happy. And this weekend she was over the top! What a blessing to have shared in her joy and fulfillment as a mom, in witnessing her son marry the love of his life. She was there for me when my son married his love, in Jamaica 2 years ago. And we still have one more to go, between us!

I am so grateful for my life’s journey to be at this point. I want everyone to have the joy I feel. If you have a sister, tell her, and tell her often how much you love her. Don’t take family relationships for granted. Spend as much time as you can with her and call her often. We were fortunate enough to be raised as best friends, by our mom. She always stressed that sisters should be friends. And that is so true. We have had our disagreements and we lead totally different lifestyles. Yet, we have balance and we have commonalities that go well beyond lifestyles.

One of the greatest things we share is our love for God and acknowledging how important our faith is. Everything we are and everything we do is in gratitude for God’s grace and mercy; something we both feel we are greatly blessed with.

Here are some additional things I feel we share:

• Acknowledging we are different All of our lives our differences (physically) have been pointed out to us. Rather than that separating us, it has bonded us. People have said mean and hurtful things to us and about us throughout our lives, yet we grew closer and unified in our sisterhood. Our life styles also are so totally different. She has been married for well over 30 years and I was a single parent, early on. Yet, those differences have strengthened us in our independent walks in life.
• Respect Boundaries While our lifestyles are different; she is a contented homebody and I have street feet (love to go), we respect how each other lives. Yes, sometimes we cross over and tell each other how they should change, but in the end, there is much respect for where we are at.
• Spend time together Living in different states, we don’t see each other as often as we wish. When we were young adults, we shared an apartment, hung out, and basically did everything together. With marriage, kids, and life in general, we grew separate in distance, but not in the heart. What we can’t do physically together at times, we share in conversations over the phone, Face time, and via other forms of social media. As we are aging, we are more intentional in getting together and doing as much as possible.
• Love unconditionally  There are absolutely no conditions on how much and how deeply I love my sister. She is my best friend, my heart and everything to me. I will forever be there for her and I know she will be there for me. For that we are both blessed beyond measure.

So if you are blessed with sisterhood, call your sister, spend time with her and let her know how much you love her. If you do not have a sister, understand, sisterhood can be well beyond physical birth. Sisterhood can be a bond nurtured and developed over a life time with that special someone in your life.