Family.

Brothers. This photo always makes me smile.

Last night I was being reflective about the fact that my two oldest sons have lived together longer than they did with us. This fall Timothy will be moving to Calif. and that bond will change. Will they still remain friends and talk often or will they simply go their own ways. I have wanted children my entire life and couldn't wait to start a family. While being a parent has been the biggest challenge of my life I would not have missed it for anything. However, I never visualized they would grow up and we would become so distant and uninvolved in each others lives. I take full blame because we are the ones that keep leaving and perhaps we unknowingly created this detachment. I have friends with grown children and grandchildren and their lives are completely intertwined.  I have resolved myself that we may never have that with our boys and its a shame. We even have two granddaughters we never see even though we have surely tried. Families are such a wonderful relationship because you can be yourself and they still have to love and care about you. Maybe we are all in a transitional phase right now trying to find ourselves and when we do, we will become a close family again. In the meantime I hope our boys realize friends come and go but they have history and blood together. That is worth any effort to nurture and hold each other close to their hearts. You do not have to live in the same town or have anything in common to be brothers. You simply have to care enough that you are.