Day 651: So Many Sisters

I am revelling in the glory of all my lovely women friends and how lucky I am to be loved by the richness of female loveliess in my life. 

Today, working in Zurich, I had the pleasure of my dark and shiny angel sister Mirjam Lencarelli, met on a yoga course just over two years ago. We met again last year when I was here on the same job. This year, after coffee and sharing of our funniest and most intimate stories, we went to the Sauna on the Lake - a bouncing jetty backed up by a row of saunas. You can swim naked and tiny in Lake Zurich and then hot yourself up in one of three saunas, two relaxation rooms or the cafe. You can also hang out outside, which we did when the sun was out. 

I can't believe how lucky I am to get to spend time with a person I cherish, doing something I'd have been doing for years, had I only known it was there. We dipped and swam and heated and sweated. We laughed a lot and I went speckeldy of the legs like a red and pale pink snake. We were there for three hours. Walking back, I was smiling so big, people were turning to stare. It's like being in love, just with the simple happiness and nourishment of a good friend and an excellent does of hot and cold and water. There was a little bit of hot chocolate action too. 


Mirjam gave me her scarf, a truly beautiful object and soft to the touch of my even softer than usual sauna skin. I gave her my heart - highly imperfect, made of rose quartz. It's been sitting next to my heart for months and she now has it sitting by hers. 

And the rest. In the last few days, I've been dazzled by the love and loveliness of Tiu, Ruths B and E, Val, Natalya, Amy and Barbara, but stretch that to just a tiny bit longer and the list gets fatter and fatter: so thank you, Lilley, Tulsi, Tanya, Laura, Emily, J, Kate, Kati (who I'm about to see - wheeeee!), Frea, Beec, Clubba, Pudding, SarahLonton, Lina, Nicola, Maca, Kim, Bridget, Dilly, Rach(a)els of all spellings, a few Fionas, a spattering of Juliets, Kath, Kathy, Klaudia, Caroline, Lisa, Little Jean, Jane, Pauline Pond and all those other brilliant coldwater women and god, so, so, so many more. And of course, my own actual blood-related sisters, Sarah and Anna, who I don't see enough of, but for whom I'm bigly grateful.

I adore the men in my life too - what a lot of fabulous people they are - and that's for another time. Today's about celebrating those siren sisters, and the stubborn ones, and the ones that tell it like-the-fuck-it-is (Pudding, I love you) and the funny ones and the ones full of full of full of love and the ones I see rarely but hold dearly (Clubba, Mirjam, Caroline, Gaelle, Lilleylovely, Tanya) and the ones I only just know or who are flung particularly far, but are deeply loved (Murry Judd, you fucking rock, you do, Amanda Garcia, Beata Radiccio Bean). I've missed loads, I know I have, and I'll get that weirdy neck creep when I notice I've missed someone I love with such flavour that I'll feel terrible they aren't mentioned here, but that's as it is and as it will be. 

Thank you, all my sisters, and the men and women who love you. I am blessed (and really very clean and soft indeed).