Sabbatical Part 5: Washington State

“Our brothers and sisters are there with us from the dawn of our personal stories to the inevitable dusk.”
~Susan Scarf Merrell

The last big adventure of my sabbatical entailed spending two weeks with my sister and brother-in-law in Washington State.

The relationships between siblings and how those relationships change over time can be fascinating. Sometimes heartening and sometimes heartbreaking, depending on the dynamics in our families.

Angela Chen wrote a great article in The Atlantic called “The Longest Relationships of Our Lives” about sibling relationships. Chen reflects, “In other words, siblings are forced together, and then suddenly they’re not. The independence of adulthood—when proximity is no longer required and the obligations lessen—creates opportunities for siblings to build, repair, or discard the relationships of their youth, to stay stuck in or break free of the roles they played as children.”*

For our part, my older sister and I joke that our birth order got messed up as I have often taken the role of “responsible older sister” in our relationship. Yet, not always. As I have tended to be the stereotypical youngest child who is highly agreeable with my older sister’s plans.

Some will argue that the birth order of our siblings doesn’t matter and doesn’t shape our personalities as much as others believe. Though the truth is that our siblings do shape who we are as human beings. It can be a profound relationship in our lives.

It is not always easy to live across the country from my one and only sibling.
The distance that separates us is quite literally 2,832 miles.
Time together is all the more precious.
And I am grateful!

In the end, and near the end of this sabbatical, I am reminded that our relationships with our siblings may just be one of the longest relationships of our lives.

*Angela Chen, “The Longest Relationships of our Lives,” The Atlantic, August 16, 2023.