Hearing from my sister

I wrote yesterday about my excommunication from my family partially because the story came up several times, in various forms, during the weekend at Seyon Lodge, and I thought it might be good to put it all in one place.  But while it was already on my mind because of those discussions, I got home on Sunday to find that, during the time I'd been partially incommunicado up at Seyon Lodge (I had Internet access but wasn't checking everything I usually check, or as often), I'd gotten an email from my sister.

As I said yesterday, all these years I'd had the impression she was part of my mother's "we" and that she was therefore just as upset with me as my mother (or at least enough to not speak to me), and thus, part of my exclusion from the family.  But she says that that's not entirely the case.  She didn't go into details, but part of it is that my mother didn't tell her the whole thing.  And more than just the "only hearing one side of the story" part that is inevitable in the circumstances.  And part of it was that she'd been pressured, and had decisions made for her.  She's not elaborating and I don't see a reason to push the question.  For whatever reason, all these years she felt that she couldn't or shouldn't contact me, or that if she did, I would be angry or upset, and her overture would be unwelcome.  Meanwhile, I never contacted her because I thought she wouldn't want to hear from me, and I was respecting that desire.

So we're now making a little effort to reconnect.  We've been filling each other in about what's been going on in our lives.  There could be some awkwardness since she's still in touch with our mother, who might not be totally happy to see this going on, but we'll see what happens if it happens.

This is unfamiliar ground for me and I am not even sure what I hope to see come of it.  I certainly wasn't expecting it.  And funny it should happen literally on the day of my twentieth anniversary vow renewal, when I found myself telling people about my family situation, and occasionally thinking about whether anyone in my family might have wanted to be invited (and concluding they wouldn't).  The universe waited a decade to pick that moment for this to happen.  Silly universe.  Maybe this is, after all, a sentimental Hollywood movie.  I wonder who's playing me.