SoulSisters Unite!

Early in the morning it is the same thing for as long as I can remember. Wake up, find the phone, call my sister. This is our ritual, and every morning we say the same things—Did I wake you? Can you talk? What’s happening over there? It’s amazing there is anything new to say at all, considering we just spoke yesterday, and three times the day before that. But do not be deceived. This is no ordinary sister chitchat. We are at all times collaborating, well aware that the Divine Mother has drawn the circle wide, inviting us on a shared path where the wisdom of birth and the playfulness of children lights our way.

Our call is to bring blessing and hope where it is least expected, to shed light on secret strengths and to celebrate quiet triumphs. We do so by banishing despair and bringing delight where fear once reigned. We ride our bicycles around our respective neighborhoods, sure that the banner of Holy Kindness has blessed us beyond measure. We feel certain that superhero capes are in order, so deeply do we love this path that it fills our hearts with joy. We make meals, give rides, sit on curbs, play in parks, listen to children, tell stories, sing songs, take care of strangers, make up jokes, share wisdom, listen with both ears and eyes looking right at you. If play is our daily bread—the one thing that leaves us sure that God is alive and well on planet earth—then tears are the cup. We understand that sadness is the place where the Son Himself rests his weary head.

It wasn’t always like this. In the beginning, for example, when my sister was eight and I was sixteen, we mistakenly believed shopping was our call. I would drive and my sister would remind me that more checks in my checkbook must mean we had more money. That worked for a while, but then I went away to college. We had our share of growing up to do, and paths parted while we each found our way. Years later, we found ourselves—despite our age difference—both mothers of young children, and both eager to find a way to honor the wisdom we were uncovering in ordinary things. We lived too far apart to see each other often, but phone calls each morning became a way to make sense out of the ways we were being pulled into a deeper sense of God’s dreams for the world.

At first we collaborated on little things—family celebrations, parenting strategies and other ways to connect deeply with children. Then other dreams surfaced—random acts of kindness, a super secret cash giveaway for a friend in need, hand-drawn letters and little people and stories about Spirit finding us in the most unexpected places. And then, The SoulSisters’ Guide to a Very Merry Christmas—a fun and spirited little book for Advent that we published ourselves.

Now we do all kinds of writing together—over the phone, brainstorming, what must be conveyed and why for this particular task, whether it be a vision statement for work, an ode to knock-knock jokes, a manifesto on the life of children in the church or another article about how Spirit calls. We are delighted by what we can accomplish together and rue the day when death parts us. We want to be very old ladies together making parties in somebody’s kitchen. How do I know my own thoughts, I often wonder, before I hear them out loud in the presence of my sister?

Recently, sitting in Whole Foods contemplating a new writing project, we were both overcome by how deeply we felt called to have our lives poured out, so that the Beauty and healing power of Divine Source could flow through us to everyone we meet.

“This is what I want—all I want,” my sister said.

“For my whole life.” I answered, nodding.

“Yes!” she answers. “Yes. My whole life.”

In a split second, we are laughing, crying, anointing the other with holy water from the plastic bottles on the table.

I wondered in that moment—is there any way to live such a call without the companionship of another? My sister is my partner for life, and in her company, the dreams of God become more amazing every day.