I’ve been really into the Happier podcast with Gretchen Rubin and her sister Elizabeth Craft. Not only do I learn and enjoy from their fascinating content, but I’ve been very inspired by their reason for creating their podcast. It was to have a reason to connect with each other as grownups and stay connected day to day even while living on opposite sides of the country.

I’m 11 years older than my sister Sarah, so traditional sister-bonding didn’t really happen. I moved out of the state when she was 7, and got married (for the first time) when she was 9. Now she and her family live in Wisconsin while we are in Washington and we don’t see each other very often. I am allergic to talking on the phone, so that doesn’t happen. Yet I wanted a way to start a messaging dialogue each day so that we’d have a reason to reach out and share the little stuff. She was instantly on board and we tossed some ideas around. We came up with the idea to watch the same TED talk each day (on our own time) and then use it to start a conversation. It’s been great! Not only are we having our minds broadened by awesome TED Talks, but we are connecting every day about our lives; both the little stuff and the big stuff. We’ve been going deep and really exploring our inner selves together and helping each other with our goals and trials.

We are now both happily married adults with children, so have much more in common than a toddler and a teenager, and I’m glad I get to know her now!