April 16, 2012

• and then there are the faces…

  There are the faces of strangers.   Some are open and friendly and welcoming.  Others are sad or closed or weary.
  

  And there are the faces of friends.  Funny how you never get tired of those faces.

   And the faces of the people you live with every day, dear and familiar.  Those ones you know so well that you sometimes don’t even really look at them.

   And then there are the faces of acquaintances, people that you don’t really know the heart of.

   And the more you get to know someone, the more precious their faces usually become.

   I flew from way up here in Alberta to Washington D.C.  recently. At midnight, exhausted from the 5 hour flight from L.A.,  in that huge airport where I had to take a tram from the arrival gate to the baggage claim, these were the faces that greeted me.

   The faces of my 5 sisters. 

  

   

  There is Carol.  She is wise and big hearted beneath her rather brusque exterior.  She taught school for 20-something years, loves gardening and babies, reads many, many books, is a cancer survivor, and currently works for Christian Light Education in Virginia, where she helps edit curriculum, works on vacation Bible school projects, and does all manner of things that I know little about.  She lives in a neat little trailer and grows tulips and peaches.  Carol adopted an Alberta 9 year old soon before she moved to Virginia, and her daughter Jessica now has two little girls.  Carol is a very proud and doting grandma and I’m so glad she has Jessica, Lori, and Lyla in her life since she is so far from the rest of her family.

  

  Julia is my only sister who lives in Alberta, but she lives 12 hours south, so we don’t get to see each other often.  She is a mother to 7, three of them First Nations foster children that she can’t adopt but has permanent guardianship of.  Julia separated from her husband something like 12 years ago.  She is one of the sisters I call when I feel blue or anxious because she often calls me when she feels the same.  Julia reads a lot, is very organized and hardworking, and never sits down until the work is done.   She has a good, true heart and is known for her lovely soprano voice.

  

   Alta lives in Saskatchewan, probably 12 hours from us.  She is married to a very nice computer man and has two children.  Rebecca is 7 and Lucas is her 2 year old son from China.  Alta is a very put-together sort of girl.  She has a teaching degree and has used her training most in working for the Canadian government in the correctional system.  She has been a prison guard, taught substance abuse and family violence programs to offenders, and now provides training and oversight for programs which are offered to offenders in institutions and on parole.  In other words, I think she trains people to do the work she used to do herself.   She travels Canada  quite a lot, reads voraciosly, enjoys politics, and is always fun to discuss life with because she has an understanding heart.  She is also a very good cook.

  

  Twila is a mom to five girls, is married to another very nice computer man, and is very artistic and talented.  Twila is sanguine, has an infectious laugh, and is definitely the most outgoing Peachey girl.  She gardens and cooks amazing food and paints pictures and arranges flowers and sews continuously.  Her friends are very important to her and she loves people and connections and bettering herself with inspirational reading.  She is the fun sister.  She always has a good story to tell.
  

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  She is also the griller lady.
  

  
  

  

  I, Luci, am next.

   Then there is Linda.  She is tall and elegant.  She is very reserved for a Peachey and definitely the quietest of the bunch.  Linda is married to a very wise, bookish, and musical teacher and they have 3 children.  She and her family were missionaries in Romania for 7 years, so I’m loving having her within calling distance again, even though she lives 40-something hours away in Missouri.  Linda is the little sister that did everything with me as a child and we usually “get” each other in a special way.  Linda is very driven.  She sews and quilts and reads and cleans with a determination I don’t have.  She also sings beautifully.  I call her often.

  We have never gotten together as sisters-only, so the dynamics of this encounter were totally different than a family reunion.  We slept late, ate whenever we felt like it, took long walks, and stayed in our pajamas till embarrassing hours of the afternoon.  We slept little and talked about our common insomnia issues, many of us popping pills when we finally did go to bed so that we could actually settle down and sleep.  Because of bad plane connections, I missed the first day of the short three with my sisters and felt a little cheated, but I’m trying not to remember that part of the trip.

  

  (~We’re obviously not the cutie-cute type of sisters who pose originally.  Straight lines only for these ladies.

   My sisters are not really the let’s all go shopping or play games type.  We hashed a LOT of serious topics during our weekend and I just loved sitting in that beautiful cabin snuggled up in a blanket seeing their precious and familiar faces and hearing the words that make up who they each are.

  

  We had some hilarious moments trying to find the lost car at the airport, getting lost on the way back from the airport, and laughing over old stories from the past.  We talked openly about marriages, weight, aging, insecurities, and our relationships with God.  We walked the beautiful campus at Eastern Mennonite University, had coffee and dessert at Panera Bread, cried some tears, and had more than one argument.  (It’s not a Peachey gathering without a good disagreement or two.)  And of course there were the moments when everyone was talking (except maybe Linda) and no one was listening.  This didn’t happen as often as when our brothers are with us, but we had our moments. We discovered that some of us consider certain of our sisters our best friends, while others of us are closer to other people instead. 

  All six of us have taught school.  All six of us have sleep issues.  All six of us drink coffee.  But we’re so varied in how we approach life and work and relationships.  And we find that we’re all OCD about different things.
  

  
  

  all 6 of us rode around in Carol’s ancient but reliable car….VVVrooom!!

  

   

   It was a good, good time.  It wasn’t restful, but it was refreshing. 

  

   

  

  ditzy me…forgot to take any good pictures of the cabin where we stayed.  Here Alta of the fashionable shawl mans her heavy suitcase.  And Carol enters the cabin laden with goodies. ^^^^^^

  

   

  And I was so excited to meet these beautiful Virginia faces as well. 

  

   When Michelle (@smilesbymiles) heard that I was coming to Virginia and suggested that we get together, I jumped at the chance.  She is such a bright, lovely little thing.  I knew she was tiny, but I didn’t realize how small she was until I looked at a picture a customer at Panera Bread took of us together.  I look like an absolute GIANT beside her and I am boringly average in size all around.  We talked hard for three hours and I loved learning to know her a little bit.  She was even nicer than her blog.  Here is a stellar post she writes at http://smilesbymiles.xanga.com/760978667/what-makes-them-different/

  Meanwhile, her 4 year old son Liam was just Theee Sweetest and Most Patient child you ever saw.  I just  couldn’t get over how good he was.  And how cute.  I wish he and Andre (my 4 year old) could get together.  I think they’d get on famously.

   Virginia at the end of March was too lovely for words to my color and warmth starved eyes and soul.

  

  

  

  

   

  But mostly the faces are what I remember.  The familiar faces of these girls that I love.  The faces of those who are tied by blood lines and memories of the past.  The faces of family who love me as I am.  And the faces of new friends with the promise of more.

   

   

   

  • 11:07 pm
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