Connections

There is a soup commercial out these days that has a woman calling a soup company in excitement because she is able to fit into a dress after eating their soup, the soup company representative she speaks to is a woman who is able to share her excitement in losing the weight to allow her to wear her favorite dress. The next scene is a woman who is able to fit in her "skinny" jeans as a result of eating the soup. She happens to be speaking to a male representative of the soup company, and he can't seem to muster the excitement that the woman is looking for, so she asks to speak to a woman.

We all have people we connect with for different reasons, maybe our moms and us share a sweet memory, maybe we can make a noise over the phone and our dads can immediately recognize the sound that our car is making, we might see a scene from a movie that reminds us of a first date with our now husband and that can bring back memories as well. (The opening scene from Titanic brings me back to one of my first dates with Johnny, and the funny story that goes along with it). Sometimes, only the person we share that memory with can truly understand our feelings about it.

I have those memories of times with my sister, and they many times revolve around movies and TV shows. I found myself watching, within the time span of about a week, the movies Dirty Dancing and Urban Cowboy. My sister and I had lines from those movies the that would bring us to laughter to the point of tears. We also shared a love of the TV show Friends. One episode that we particularly found funny was the "Yemen" episode where Chandler, in an effort to get away from his girlfriend without hurting her feelings by breaking up with her, tells her that his company is transferring him to Yemen. Now, I admit, before that episode, I had never even heard of the country of Yemen, and I'm not sure I could tell you where it is today. I do know, that I can't participate in a serious adult conversation about Yemen without cracking a smile. My sister and I always looked forward to seeing the athletes from Yemen at the Olympics.

Those are things that I shared with my sister, that nobody will ever be able to relate to me with on the same level that she did. That is my "new normal" I here that phrase a lot these days, but nothing seems normal about not having my sister here. I wasn't able to call when our favorite movies were on, or when the Yemen episode of Friends was on last week.

But when those times occur, and they will, I can trust that God will walk me through that. And maybe use those as times to remember those other great things about my sister, her laugh, her heart for others and her love of my children. Use those times to remember the ones that are here with me now, and love on them the way she would want me to. (And her sympathy for Johnny as I ask millions of questions throughout a football game: What is a down again, and how many do they get? How do they remember the plays? Why does the coach put that card over his mouth when he speaks, does he really think someone is reading his lips and will then give away the next play?)