Dear Friend,
You know my brother?
I have one biological brother. He’s one of the sweetest souls on earth. I’ve been told it’s unusual to retain memories from our first two or three years. My earliest dateable memory is from when I was one year and eight months into this life time. June, 1970.
The sun had gone down and it was dark and we were in Dad’s blue car. It was a Ford popular. I was in the back. No belts or child car seat. The car is empty, I don’t know where we are. We’re parked near a lamp post. Something precious comes, wrapped in a crochet blanket. Lots of tiny holes and it’s soft and creamy white. Mam has the precious thing and Dad opens the door for her, tender and concerned and proud.
Inside the blanket is a pink thing.
“Oh, it’s you” I think as I reach out and offer my tiny hand and you grab hold of my fingers, squeeze them in confirmation.
That’s how I met my brother.
We went home and it was complete.
I have earlier memories from before, when I was here without him. I wrote about it some time ago. We don’t get to see each other so much these days. It’s like that with a lot of the people I love.
Like we all got into a great big centrifugal device, got flung across the globe, landing wherever. We make our lives.
Once I had a dream and in it I had been driven mad by the world. In the dream I was trying to communicate. People I loved. Respected. Needed. I could hear the words coming out of me, but they were nonsense, disconnected from what I wanted to communicate. The look of pain and confusion on their faces, the panic inside me as I realised my own insanity.
There have been times where we’ve misunderstood one another, Kevin and me. We’ve fought. We’re brothers after all. I’ve learned to let things go. It’s a question of priorities. What matters at the end of things is the love between us. The love inside of us. The love that flows through us. I know not everyone gets on with siblings.
Family’s can be pretty messed up before you arrive. It makes it hard to bond, to thrive.
I just want to put it out there, how much it means to have you in this lifetime.
Wherever the device flung you.
Whether our brotherhood or sisterhood is biological or we are the family we chose.
Whether we’ve met in person or only here.
There is no distance in mind and time is an illusion.
We’re all working it out, together even if we’re apart in space and time.
Only love is real.
All else is illusion.
Till tomorrow
Love
Mikey