Tag Archives: sisters

Survival: Solid Rock – By Karla

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Tarzan in Nana’s Backyard

My sisters and I watched Tarzan every Saturday afternoon at one o’clock. Ron Eli, the 1960’s Tarzan was wonderful with his sidekick Chi. However, were equally excited when Johnny Weissmuller filled Nana’s black and white TV portraying the 30 and 40’s hero swinging on the vines avoiding the quicksand to save Jane!

After Tarzan went off, what were four girls to do?  Go outside and play Tarzan, of course. To be truthful, three of us went out to play.  Lynn, my oldest sister, had her fill of the jungle life by the watching of Tarzan and was ready  to settle into a good book. So, Gail, Julie, and I run to the massive rope that hung from the big oak behind Nana and Granddaddy’s house. It once adorned a tractor tire, but at some point the tire retired, which was okay because we were still enthralled with our “jungle vine”. Gail was always Tarzan, no matter how much Julie or I begged. Thus, Jane became my role.

Poor Julie!  This left her with few choices:  boy (from the older movies), Chi, or Cheetah–Tarzan’s monkey! Luckily for Julie, one episode featured Ron Eli helping a deaf and mute girl. Julie was forever saved! She was no longer stuck with being a boy or a monkey. In our minds, the little child was a regular in Tarzan and Jane’s lives. This also had another perk; she couldn’t talk! We had to remind her of that often. We climbed trees, looked for the poachers, faced fierce alligators, dodged the quicksand, and managed to always safely return to our imaginary tree house

The Jungle’s Quicksand at School

I must have been totally fascinated with quicksand, because at school during recess, I protected my best friends from the quicksand that covered our playground. There we had no Tarzan; Gail was across the catwalk in the other building.  So, I was not Jane during the week. I was just plain Karla, who with my friends, had dangerous missions. Our goal required us to strategically move from one landscaping timber to another avoiding the massive quicksand pits.

The Quicksands of Adulthood

As I continued into adulthood, I found quicksand there too. At times, the quicksand took on the form of loneliness after a relationship breakup. Managing a part-time job with college tests and project deadlines caused pitfalls. Career choices and house hunting has swept me off my feet at times, and I don’t mean in a good way.

Endless bills and deciding where the money for those would come from have entangled me on many occasions. Being a mother, even in all its joy, is like continuously swinging above the quicksand, not knowing when you might fall. (Broken arms, teenage hormones, didn’t  make the team, first dates, and the endless mounds of laundry.) Life is tough!

However, I have a Savior, and He saves me from all the quicksands in the world.

In Psalms 18:2, “The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” There have been so many days in which I am overwhelmed by people or my circumstances. I have held tightly to this verse to carry me through uncertainty.

For, “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.  All other ground is sinking sand.”

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Sisters: Adopted In -By Donna

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According to the internet, the first Sunday in August is National Sisters Day! Many of my friends and cousins had sisters, but I was the only girl in the middle of two brothers.  (You can read more about that in the blog, Brotherly Love, located in the February Archives.)

Growing up, I never longed for a sister. I believe it was for several reasons. When I was very young, my little brother played everything a sister would have from Barbie dolls to house. As a teenager, my cousin Lisa spent most of the summer at my home, so I had a temporary sister. In addition, two weeks out of the summer Karla and I stayed together.  Obviously, when I went off to college, I had my fill of females in my dorm. Who needs a sister?

Mama

When I lost my mama in February 2007, I realized the reason I never yearned for a sister was because she was that “sister” figure in my life. She was my confidant, shopping buddy, shoulder to cry on, psychologist, and more. Mama was the one to call when there was an embarrassing question that I didn’t want to ask anyone else. She always had advice about my kids. She knew me inside and out. But when Mama died, despite my close cousins and friends, I felt a gaping hole. 

Karla was always there for me, above and beyond, but over the course of the year, after Mama’s passing, I really became aware of what it meant to have a sister. I had watched it from afar. I saw Karla, who had lost her mother a few years prior, and her three sisters.  During the months and years after their mom died, she always had her sisters checking on her, helping her, loving her, and grieving with her. Over the years, Karla had become the sister I never had. But, wow she had three. When one couldn’t be there, another stepped in. My brothers are wonderful and would do anything for me, but there are things that boys just don’t understand. Now that mama was gone, I realized how special a sister was. 

Sisters

One day, I expressed my feelings to Karla about how lucky she was to have sisters. I believe it was the next day that I received a text from Lynn, Karla’s oldest sister and the Matriarch of our generation. It stated that I was now a sister to them. I smiled at the gesture and knew Karla had shared with them my thoughts, but didn’t really think a lot about it. But over time, I came to realize it was not just a “gesture”. I began to be included in group texts between the sisters. They began treating me as if I was one of them. And the thing that melted my heart was that all of their children began calling me “Aunt Donna”.

I was not fortunate enough to have a birth sister, but God has blessed me with multiple sisters, and I didn’t even have to share my clothes with them growing up! But as you can see from the picture, mine probably would have been a little too short for them.

 

 

 

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