Environmentalist. Spiritualist. Dreamer. Weirdo. Funny girl. Gardner.

Unburdened by societal preconceptions she lives each day with a purity I envy and respect. Every interaction she has seems to allow for an honest evaluation and response that can question the very core of her beliefs without collapsing her values. Her honesty and integrity beyond reproach. Mostly concerned with the enjoyment and appreciation of every moment she manages to remain grounded in day to day affairs while simultaneously proactively working towards a better world in one way or another. Capable of harsh judgment she can and does withhold it moment to moment allowing every experience to infuse it’s own meaning and value according to circumstance.

She believes food is important, not merely a commodity of survival or business, but a spiritual phenomena that exposes the frailty of humanity and our direct connection to the earth. She may not always have the biggest garden or always manage to tend it exactly as she would prefer, but it never stops being a symbol of what I believe is a better simpler world. A slower world where you appreciate the moment and share your excess freely and use what you have to make people happy.

She doesn’t like driving. So she rides a bike and uses public transit even when it is inconvenient and people judge her or misunderstand her because of it. Getting rid of her car and ongoing conviction despite the rainy days, the days when she is tired and would rather not take an hour to get to work, the nights when she has to call an early evening because transit has stopped, all of which give her pause, still are not enough, upon reevaluation, for her to compromise what she sees as a better way. Instead of giving up she conceives of ways she can make it better be that changing the system or changing herself to make the system work better for her as it is.

She doesn’t believe in violence on any level. And despite the fact that I know there are days when she would really like to punch someone in the nose, she never would. She is my own personal Gandhi. When I think of how I could respond peacefully to a situation I ask what would my sister do.

She gets sad and frustrated. Her honesty at times is cutting. She is not always kind. She is not always generous. But even when she is sad, brutally honest, unkind, or ungenerous you never doubt the sincerity of her being and the compassion in her purpose. You get the sense that whatever injustice she may ever inflict on herself or anyone else that it is only because she knows we all can do better. She is so deeply and earnestly human. She is the human I wish humans were.

It seems as though my sister doesn’t believe me when I tell her how profound an impact she has on my life. Her presence is calming and inspiring. Her knowingly innocent views on certainly complex issues let’s you believe for a few moments that there is hope for the future, that someday humans will get it right. She reminds me that love is more than an emotion but a way of being.

My sister has many times over been my ShorDurPerSav. Not because she is perfect, but because she knows she isn’t yet somehow manages to convince you everything will be.