I was ready to write about a completely different topic today… but my heart was so moved that I cannot think of anything else that I would wish to share…
One of life’s greatest gifts to me has been the wealth of beauty that I have been blessed with in the form of amazing unforgettable souls that I have met along my journey. They come at the most unexpected times and often appear in the form of people I have met before but never really known.
I have had the good fortune of getting to see many parts of the world, of living in three different continents and learning to recognize that in my life home is not a set place. In each place I have been gifted with rare gems in the form of friends and teachers, mothers and fathers, sisters and those which are always for some reason dearest to my heart… brothers.
Perhaps because of my tender heart and my deep connection to its emotions I have often been able to recognize when there is something special taking place. That moment when a friendship becomes deeper, when the connection transcends time and space and enters into that realm of unboundedness.
Its as if somehow its nothing new, only that you are able to experience once again. And while you are able to see that its eternal, that the connection was there before you met and will be there long after you part, there is something about that moment when you have to say farewell…
These last few months I was adopted by a couple of brothers. They had spent the last ten years together, working together, living together and playing together. They perfected a partnership that knew no boundaries, a love that expressed itself in the smallest things and never had to be mentioned. Everything was us and we…
They opened this door to me in a way that I never expected.
Today one of them started off on a new journey, set away to begin building a life of a house-holder. And I awakened this morning knowing full well that it would not be easy to see him go. I thought of how much I would miss the laughter and the discussions, the eery way that our minds seem to jump from one thought to the other in the same manner. I woud miss all of the inside jokes that allowed us to say one word or make one glance and a whole story was recalled a new laughter enlivened.
Yet I also knew that it must have been tougher for him, I at least had the luxury of staying behind and sharing the familiar surroundings and remaining friends, least of which was the other brother.
So we had lunch together and then went for a great walk. Laughing and joking as we always have… yet today with a little pinch in the heart, knowing that there would be a moment when he would be gone.
And when it came, I was strong. There would, after all, be only a distance between us and even that could only last for a short time and would be bridged by technology to some extent. So I gave him a hug, bid him farewell and we acknowledged, as we should, that we would meet again soon.
He got in the car and a small group of us watched him drive off. I looked over at his brother and saw the sadness in his eyes. For ten years they had been together, and no doubt they will be again. But I could sense the emptiness that he felt… Whatever I might have experienced could not compare…
We walked back, three of us, and talked keeping the subject light. In the next few weeks two more of us would be going off on our own journeys. It is a time of change, one that we hope to call adventure…
And then, out of nowhere, as if scripted by the most talented of Hollywood writers, a few steps were heard behind us and we turned to look.
There he was, the parting brother, and he said, “I forgot something…”
He faced his brother and put his hands on his face, and with the most beautiful love in his eyes kissed him on his cheeks three times and ran off again.
Brother, its 444, we miss you already…
