This picture to me encapsulates the sibling relationship – that unique bond, wrought in love, friendship, and rivalry that cannot be replicated or replaced.
I have a younger sister and this picture pretty much sums up our personalities and our relationship. Her extroverted exuberance and merry amiability is the perfect foil for my introverted calmness and quiet serenity. While our underlying values and principles are very similar, our personalities are polar opposites.
Yet, she is my first and best friend!
And I would choose no other!
She pushes me to find joy in the simple things, while I keep her grounded. If I tend to over think and intellectualise, she forces me to face reality. If she is tossed to and fro by her emotions, she knows I’m there to put salt on her tail! Even today, she is the one who ‘gets’ me, knowing all my idiosyncrasies and foibles, as I do hers.
Over the years, we’ve laughed and cried together—sometimes even being the source of those laughs and tears for each other—fought and lived together in some semblance of a peace treaty, and missed each other like crazy once we moved out of home.
Our relationship is a companionable attachment that has seen its fair share of arguments and fights, which surprisingly has only served to strengthen the bond. The unique thing about siblings is that we are allowed to fight with each other. But woe betides anyone who fought with our sibling! Then hell hath no fury and all that jazz would really come true. She knows I’ve got her back and I’m absolutely certain she’s got mine, for the rest of our lives!
This is something I wrote for her many years ago, but it still holds true today – https://inkhorn.home.blog/2011/02/11/on-family/
inkhorn 