Recently I introduced two people to cross stitch. Cross stitch is something I really enjoy doing – something about making one stitch at a time, following a plan (a pattern), and turning all of those singular stitches into a larger, more cohesive image. First I taught my dear friend Jessie and, more recently I taught my sister.

I can’t help but feel like there is some significance with my latter pupil. You see, there once was a time when my sister and I did not spent time together. We had a tenuous relationship. There was a falling out, to put it mildly and to keep those private details indeed private – and we weren’t altogether very nice to each other. This spanned the length of a few years and during that time, I mourned the absence of my only sibling. I think she did the same.