If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a family girl. I love my family deeply and rely heavily on them for support and fun. My life is one of frequent uprooting due to my father's career for most of my life, which meant that for the first 21 years, my mom dad and brother were my only real constant in life. As a result, we are much closer knit than I think a lot of families are, even when we drive each other bonkers.
I am the oldest child in my family, I have one sibling, my "baby" brother (1.5 years younger than me) Jared. Jared is everything a brother is supposed to be, annoying, too chatty, a little bit of a tattle tale, not quite as quick on the uptake as me, fun to be around, way smarter than me in some areas, funny, charming, helpful and caring. I've posted several blogs about my brother in the past (on other blogs) and about how much I adore him. When I got married, one of the toughest transitions for both of us was it was the first time in our lives that "home" was no longer the same space for us. When I was in college, I still came home, when I graduated, I moved home, Jared and I have lived together our entire lives, and suddenly "going home" meant a place where he wasn't. We have grown to be such close friends and that was a real struggle. Thankfully my new home is a manageable distance from him, and I actually live only a couple of miles from where he works, so we still find time to spend together, even if it isn't nearly as frequent as I would like.
Last weekend Jared did me a real solid (as he often does) and took the night out to spend with me and get me to a gig of my husbands that was several hours away. He offered to go because he knew I was pretty much dead on my feet tired, and that this particular gig was really important to me to attend. We ended up frantically assembling cds for 30 minutes when he arrived to pick me up (my husband is notorious for not remembering to even have cds ready let along with him at gigs), then almost 2 hours visiting on the drive there, time there (and gambling a little together - it was a casino gig), then the almost 2 hour ride home where he dropped me off. It was such a great treat, not only because I get very lonely with my life (I'm often home alone during the day with limited transportation options) but also because it had been awhile since my brother and I had so much time to just hang out together, outside of some other something going on.
My letter to Jared allowed me to thank him for spending that time with me, and to remind him of how much I love him, and that even though I am thrilled to have moved into this new chapter of my life, I still miss having him around all the time, and wish we got to see each other more.
If you have a sibling you don't get to spend much time with, please use this entry as inspiration to make an intentional effort to get in touch with them, or to schedule some time with them!
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