Thankful Thursday...My Brother

It's Thankful Thursday!  

I have been so out of my blogging routine, and posting so randomly, that I feel awful about missing Thankful Thursday's.  Lately, I have been deep in my thinking, as I shared with you in my last post, and I have been reminding myself quite frequently, how very much I have to be thankful for.  I hear about others misfortune or struggles or see things when I am going about my daily life that remind me how blessed I am with every passing day.  I had a huge reality check about how very short life can be this week.  I learned that a good friend of mine from my boarding school in North Carolina, passed away from complications of MS.  I had not seen her in many years but, had kept in touch through Facebook.  I knew she was not doing well and just a few days before I learned she had passed on to a better life, I was thinking that I should try to get down to see her.  Life is too short.  We are most definitely not promised anything in this life and we have the choice to make the most out of every day.  I cried as I learned that the world had lost such an incredible person.  Emily was loved by everyone.  She had such a zest for life and the amazing ability to make anyone laugh.  There were many occasions in which I was crying tears of homesickness and she turned them into tears of laughter.  She will never ever be forgotten but, hugely missed by all the lives she touched and the people that loved her.  I am thankful she is no longer suffering and is likely looking down on us all with her huge smile and laughter.  Love you Em.  

Today, I am thankful for an important person in my life, that just so happens to be celebrating his birthday on this very day...my brother, Michael.  I have certainly mentioned him in various posts on this blog but, haven't dedicated a post to him specifically.  It just so happened to be Thankful Thursday today and that worked out perfect!  

Now, where shall I begin?  My brother is 9 years older than me. For the most part, it was cool to have this many years between us.  Just as with my sister, the age difference made it so we didn't bicker and argue like most siblings.  This is not to say that over the years we didn't have some pretty big blow ups with each other.  We absolutely did.  These didn't happen until I was a teenager or older when he would act like he was boss man because he did hold nine years of seniority over me after all.  Being a teenager, this was totally not cool and I often put up my best defense.  I now can look back at those times and know that it was just because he cared about me and was looking out for me.  

When we were younger, he would go outside and play basketball with me in the driveway or play Frisbee in the front yard.  He tried to teach me to ride my new pink Schwinn bike with the banana seat (very cool in the 80's) without training wheels one day.  He held onto the back of my bike and once I started gaining some momentum, he let go and I of course fell off my bike and landed on the sewer grate.  I always remember this memory as the time he tried to teach me to ride my bike and let me fall into the sewer.  I still laugh when I think about this.  Sometimes, believe it or not, he would let me hang out with he and his buddies.  Now that I am all grown up, I realize how special that was that he loved me enough and wasn't embarrassed of me hanging out with the guys.  His good friends sort of seemed like I had gained other brothers.  They were always kind and never obnoxious and rude.  How was that? Perhaps, if they had been, he would have set them straight, as to not mess with his little sister.  

As he graduated from high school and went away to college, he wasn't always at home anymore.  There were a few times that he would come home and stay with me while my mom went out of town or something.  I have a memory that sticks in my mind and I was just telling my daughter about recently.  I rode the bus to school as a kid and my mom always sent me out to the bus stop, rain or shine.  On this particular morning, my brother sent me out in the pouring rain with my umbrella.  I wanted him to give me a ride but, he said I would be fine.  I stood out at the bus stop alone because the other kids apparently got rides to school because of the heavy rain that morning.  I stood there alone with my umbrella and a loud rumble of thunder echoed from the rainy dark clouds.  I booked it home crying to Michael that he had to give me a ride.  The bus was late and I wasn't going to stand out there any longer.  His solution was to get me in his car and drive me to another bus stop in the neighborhood!  We laugh about this now but, as a little girl.  This was one of those "not cool" brother moves.  

As we got older, or rather as I got older, he already had quite a jump in the age category, we began to grow closer.  We were able to sit down and talk about things that were going on in each others lives or family issues that we were jointly dealing with.  He would often listen with understanding and offer advice from his own experience in life.  I valued his advice.  I will admit when I was a teenager, I may not have always taken his advice as seriously as perhaps I should have.  What teen wants to truly believe that family members or anyone else knows more then they do themselves?  Nature of the beast, I suppose.  

Michael and I have the exact same sense of humor most of the time and love to act ridiculous and laugh lots and lots.  When we are together, we laugh at the same things, and often at the most inopportune times.  Those are the things that are not really funny at all but, for some reason if we look at each other, we totally lose ourselves in laughter leaving tears falling down our faces and hardly being able to breathe.  During the holidays each year, we seem to tell the same funny stories of, " Remember when..."  The memories never tire and we still keep laughing just as hard as we did the first time it happened.  

Wet willy revenge time!

I talk to people throughout my life and learn more and more often that the close relationship that I share with my brother, sister, and my parents is something really special.  Some people only speak to their siblings a couple times a year or maybe even only once every few years.  We talk frequently and text often too.  Sometimes it is just a simple, "What's up?" I love that Michael will call me and just say that he was calling to check in.  He also usually calls on, what I call, his Sunday night pizza run.  It actually involves no running whatsoever, rather just picking up the Sunday night pizza.  Running with my brother...well, I won't go into details on that today.  Let's just say that I am determined to one day, even if its his 85th birthday, make him say to me, "I love running.  Why didn't you get me started years ago?"  

Michael, I am thankful to call you my brother.  This is not something that just struck me in the last few days, but, from when I was just a little girl.  I love you so very much.  You are not only an amazing brother to me but, also, a great husband, father, son, friend, uncle, rock star, handyman, wet willy giver,future track star, okay, well, what I am trying to say is that you are a wonderful person that is very important to me and many others as well.  I have seen you persevere through tough times and succeed after hard work and determination. Please know that I even had to force myself not to carry on and write a novel for your birthday, as I know reading isn't your most favorite pastime these days.  I wanted to be sure you would read through to the end. I am also sparing you of me making a YouTube video of singing my rendition of Happy Birthday!  I'll save that for next year. I love you so much!  I hope your day is fabulous and we will most certainly celebrate as soon as you are completely bounced back from your appendectomy.  Here is to many, many more to come!  Happy Birthday....I love you brother!