#41 Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brasheres

Honestly, I wasn't going to write a lot about this book.  All I needed to say, up until about 5 mnutes ago when the thought I am about to elaborate upon hit me, was how I wished that I had my own sisterhood.  I'm not sure which of the Septembers I am most like.  I can see bits and pieces of myself in all of them, except maybe Bridget, but I'd sure love to look like her.  But wouldn't it just be so great to always have 3 people that you could call on to share everything, or even nothing?  To have 3 people who know you better than you know yourself.  While I'd like to say that having such a sisterhood is just another work of fiction, it's not true.  There are plenty of people in this world who have such a sisterhood, or brotherhood as the case may be, and, honestly, I am envious of them.

So, it was with this thought in my head that I started thinking about friendship and, because I just watched the final Harry Potter movie last night, I thought of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and horcruxes.  While I find it impossible to believe, I know that there are readers who may not be familiar with Harry Potter and who don't have a clue what a horcrux is.  This isn't the best explanation but here goes: Voldemort, the bad guy from HP, put a little piece of himself in 7 (it was 7, right?) different random places (a ring, a diadem, a snake, in Harry, etc..) so that even if someone killed him, he'd never really be dead until all of the horcruxes had been destroyed, too.  It made me wonder:  where are my 7 horcruxes?  Where I have left little pieces of myself so that if they are still alive, I will be too?

Obviously, we leave little pieces of ourselves all over.  I'd love to think that each child I have ever taught carries a little piece of Mrs. Whitt with him/her every day.  More personal than those 16 years of school children are my own children, who carry bits of me with them, like it or not.  I would also hope that Rob carries a piece of me with him, too, and so would my Mom, my sister, and my dear aunt.  But then, beyond family, there are the other important people in my life--the people who have touched my life in various ways--and I wonder if they carry a piece of me, too?  

I know that I carry them with me.  Maybe you can't call it a sisterhood (I would have to include brotherhood, too, because anyone who knew me growing up knows that I had more male friends than female friends), but I certainly feel a bit like Harry right now, carrying bits of friends from long ago inside me knowing that while I still exist, so do they.  I carry Jessica, Brooke, and Dana, Heidi, Sarah, and Karen, Greg, Rob, and Joey, Maureen, Ronda, and Shandie (do my friends all appear in sets of 3?) with me each and every day.  I carry what they taught me about love and life and friendship and I am grateful for each day I was able to spend with them and to learn from them.  These people helped to shape me into who I am today--the wife, the teacher, and the mother.  To these amazing people I give thanks.

I know that as I grow, I will house more people in my soul and they will live with me, teaching me and making me who I am.  Maybe it's better that I don't have just 3 friends.  Maybe it's better that I carry lots of people with me.  I have been blessed in this life with lots of people to love and to learn from.  Maybe I don't need a sisterhood.  Maybe my horcruxes are all I need.