Harmony Between Sisters

Six hands at a single keyboard played Debussy's Clair de Lune, the pianists three sisters seated side by side. The gossamer melody wove tranquil threads and their hands crossed and uncrossed with perfect coordination; I couldn't always tell whose hand played which notes. While watching them I felt suspended in a web of music, cooperation, harmony, and peace within my reach, glistening like beads of dew on the silken strands. With sudden clarity I knew that this piece now represented for me the benefits of a strong family.

We went as a family to see the 5 Browns in Tacoma Saturday night. These five Mormon siblings, who all attended Juilliard simultaneously and now perform and record together, play orchestral pieces arranged for five pianos as well as duets, trios and solos. They engage audience members of all ages both by the way they play and by their quirky introductions for each piece that are personal and educational. While I loved the music, what I gained most was a sense of the worth of family, siblings especially. They performed together in a united way that I feel only siblings could, people who shared a childhood, parents, toys and everything else in the years identity and individuality emerge and begin to cement.

I have never played a piece at one piano with my two sisters. I do not play the piano as well as the 5 Browns and never will. I have, however, felt cooperation, harmony, and peace while working in the kitchen with my sisters. Tatiana and I spent one Thanksgiving morning baking an apple pie that had a top crust consisting of overlapping, individually cut out and etched pastry leaves. Another year at Christmas time we made chicken tamales. For her daughter's first birthday, Johanna and I wrapped individual chunks of cake in fondant, decorating them to look like alphabet blocks.

A couple of years later for her next daughter's birthday, we wreathed a cake with flower petals to look like a sunflower.

My sisters and I also share a dedication to home education. They (and my mother) are my greatest homeschooling resource because I still prefer a live person I can engage in conversation to any online support. We each have our individual approach. I am amazed by Tatiana's commitment to speaking only Spanish in her house a few days a week, resulting in a bilingual family. Johanna has a balanced, moderate approach I learn from as I struggle with my tendency to either try for the ultimate or do nothing. Even though our homes dot the west coast--Southern California, Northern California, Washington state--I feel that even now we share our lives in a way no one else can. We do not always get along perfectly (although it's been at least two decades since I can remember any friction with Johanna, who I know deserves all the credit for this feat). However, my memories of our time together are like an inviting porch welcoming me home, a place where I'm capable, understood, and loved.

I decided to have six children in part because I felt my daughters deserved to have two sisters. My own two sisters are irreplaceable, as we are three women with a shared childhood culture who are now mothers contributing to the culture of a new generation of children. As a group I might work with all my brothers and sisters as the 5 Browns did on five separate pianos, each playing their part and contributing to an orchestra of one instrument. It is a greater unity I visualize with my sisters and I as a trio harmonizing on one piano, our hands crossing each other, reaching towards the same goal. For our next family reunion I plan to suggest that we play a trio.

To see video clips from a 5 Browns concert, including Debussy's "Clair de Lune," visit their home page, http://www.the5browns.com/.