Blackberries and Sisters

This morning Mark and I went out to do battle with the blackberries, and we have scars to prove that they were vicious opponents! There was a big patch growing behind what used to be the barn, more in a couple of the apple trees and a couple of the cherry trees, and still more growing up into the arbor vitae.

I don't know how to capture in words the fun we had working together. We made stupid jokes about the huge clumps that we had to yank and yank to get free--all their long tentacles like giant squid, and the way a vine would almost wrap itself around us as we tried to get it into the truck. We worked together and figured out a good system. Mark would pull a section and I would use the loppers to cut it off when he couldn't pull any more. The sun was shining, and we got hot and sweaty and filthy together, and it just felt so good to work hard together.

I love having a body that is (sort of) fit and strong. I love doing hard work, especially outdoors. I love working alongside my sweetheart. And as my family knows, I always love taking a trip to the dump--it is SO cathartic to get rid of messes!

So it was a good morning. We came home from the dump, scratched and bloody, but nothing that a hot shower couldn't take care of.

This evening was the General Relief Society broadcast. I love the thought of all my girls sitting together to hear the inspired messages, even though we live far apart. Ashley wasn't able to attend tonight because Blake has a cold, but as far as I know, the rest of my girls were there. Julia and Maleena were with me in Oregon City, Holly in Idaho, Kendra and Katie in Utah, Polly and Angela in the Bay Area, and Hillary in southern California.

I wish my mother were a member of Relief Society. If she lived closer, I could at least invite her to come with me.

I don't have any sisters of my own. I have one brother, and we might have had another sibling--maybe it would have been a sister--but my mother miscarried, and then she and my father decided not to have any more children. As my daughters have grown, I have admired their sister relationships, and wondered what it would be like to have a sister relationship in my own life.

Sitting in the chapel tonight, and seeing scenes from the broadcast of the vast audience, and thinking of my girls scattered in various states, all of us surrounded by sisters from our own wards and stakes, I was moved to tears to think of sisters, and how grateful I am for the many sisters I have in my life.

I am so happy to be a woman alive on the earth, so grateful for my family and the gospel in my life, so moved by inspired prophets and leaders who bring me closer to Christ.