Thinking Thursday: Bear

This prompt was "bear" or "bare". It was great and so fun for me!!

Bear/Bare

My younger sister and Sarah and I are very different from each other. She is eight years younger than I. She has dark hair that has been multiple colors and chocolate brown eyes. I have light hair and ocean blue eyes. She wears band shirts, multi-colored socks and converse shoes. I wear comfy clothes mostly, but love jewelry. We do share a love for beanies. She is not a big fan of school and I would be a lifelong student if I could. She loves Lady Gaga and I love Coldplay. I could go on all day!

We do, however, share a love for the show The Office (and Dr. Pepper). One particularly funny episode, Jim and Dwight, arch enemies, were in a battle of wits. Jim shows up to the office dressed as Dwight and dares to say three words, “Bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica”, three of Dwight’s love sin life. You have to watch the show to understand, but Sarah and I have always seen the humor in this phrase.

My big 31^st birthday was last month. At the family birthday party, Sarah gave me a variety of gifts which I was supposed to open in order. The first gift was two super soft bears. “Ok”, I thought, “The kids will love these!” The second gift was a decorative plate that simply said “Beets” on it. “Great!”, I thought, “I have an empty plate holder that needs to be used.” You would think that by now I would have gotten the clue, but no. I blame it on being tired and pregnant. The third gift was a purple candle. “Yay!” I thought, “Lavender is my favorite.” But around the candle was a label that read, “Battlestar Galactica”. Finally, the light bulb went on in my brain. I realized the significance of the gift. I laughed so hard and so did Sarah and my husband, while the rest of the family looked on like we were crazy.

My sister who has always been so different from me gave me the most creative gift of my life. We do have another thing in common (besides matching smiles and a love of The Office). We both love to laugh! We have similarly loud laughs and a good sense of humor. This is a more important similarity than any physical or material characteristic.

Since then, I have felt closer to her and all the differences I saw before aren’t as apparent anymore. I never thought a simple line from a silly show could bring me closer to my sister, but it did. Now every time I see the bears (in my kid’s toys), the beets plate (filling my plate hanger), or the candle (still unlit, next to the tub), I think of Sarah and smile and laugh a little inside.