A page from an old aquarelle block….

Two extracts from Elizabeth Lesser’s book Marrow: A Love Story on sisterly love, love and the journey of uncovering our deepest nature

‘What I learned from both transplants— the bone marrow transplant and the soul marrow transplant— is that the marrow of the bones and the marrow of the self are quite similar. Deep in the center of the bones are stem cells that can keep another person alive, perhaps not forever, but for a time and, in the case of my sister, for what she called the best year of her life. Deep in the center of the self are the soul cells of who you really are. Dig for them, believe in them, and offer them to another person, and you can heal each other’s hearts and keep love alive forever’

‘If mothers and fathers were handed a script to read to their newborns from a Certified Human Parenting manual, it might go something like this:

Welcome, little one! We are glad you have come here. We want to know everything about you— down to your marrow, down to your fingerprint. Please show us who you are. We’ll listen closely to what your soul needs and what it longs to express. But we also will teach you the ways of this earth. There are some things here that cannot be changed, but there are many things that can and should be changed. We will help you figure this out because we know you have come here to make a difference; we will help you find that purpose. You will cross paths with many “others” throughout your life, and they too will be sorting out their unique purpose and plans. This will be your greatest challenge: staying true to your marrow while honoring the truth of others— their values, their backgrounds, their wounds, and their strengths. If you have siblings, they will be your first teachers in this arena. They will serve you a confusing cocktail of care and competition, friendship and rejection. Please forgive them for mistaking you for an invader. And please forgive us— your parents— if we give you conflicting instructions; if we push you toward individuality and also insist you play well with others. Somewhere in between those two impulses is the holy middle path. To be true to yourself and to be good to others. Our greatest gift to you will be to walk that middle path ourselves, because we know talk about the path is cheap. We promise to try to walk the talk’.