Sisterhood: I Need It!

Over the short month and a half that Jon and I have been married, I have found myself frequently reflecting on something Sister Hinckley once said that was quoted last March in the General Women's Session of Conference:

“Oh, how we need each other. Those of us who are old need you who are young. And, hopefully, you who are young need some of us who are old. It is a sociological fact that women need women. We need deep and satisfying and loyal friendships with each other.”

IT IS SO TRUE! Since marrying Jon, the two of us have had so many fun and wonderful times together. Yet there have been times when I try explaining to him why I feel guilty after eating a day's worth of food in two hours and he doesn't really understand because food just goes right through him, or other times when I know that if I can just express myself and feel understood that everything will suddenly magically be better, but I know that if I start expressing myself to Jon that he'll just get confused as to why I'm having an emotional breakdown and then I'll feel frustrated. Are these things his fault? No! He just has a different pair of genes than I do, which I'm very grateful for! But though I'm grateful that he's a boy and I'm a girl, and though I have a very strong testimony about the sacred nature of the relationship between husband and wife, there is something special about the bond between females that we as women just need. Like Sister Hinckley said: "Women need women," and living the past several weeks without a lot of female companionship has shown me the truth in her words. 

I suppose it's to be expected after living my entire twenty-two-and-a-half years of life with absolutely all females and absolutely no males (well, there was my dad, but dad's don't count!): going from living in estrogen city to living with just testosterone has been quite a change. And not expecting it has made me a little slow in realizing what effect the change is having on me. 

Tonight though, I talked to my mom on the phone for a long time for the first time since I've gotten married, and lo and behold--I feel better! LOADS better! And it helped me realize how dearly I've been missing that female companionship that I've had my whole life in the room across the way. 

So I'm going to try better to make room for girl time in my life. I'm going to call-up old friends and go out to lunch with new ones. I'm going to meet sisters in my new ward and be a diligent visiting teacher. I'm going to call home to talk to my mom and sisters. I'm going to make sure that I don't lose the sisterhood I have with family, friends, and ward members, and also that I don't lose opportunities to make more of these relationships with new people. 

Marriage teaches me something new every day.