My little brother and I are making a soup.  We have decided that a perfect soup would be full of leaves and dirt.  We have somehow found a bowl to concoct in in the backyard. I have decided that we are chefs.  I am the head chef, of course, and he is my assistant.  This is usually how I decided our games for us…I would be the boss and he would be my loyal assistant.  I would be the older sister and he the younger sister (we had to play sisters of course). I was the teacher, he the student.  I was the boss and he was my secretary.  I was making the film and he was the actor.  I was directing and he was on stage.

We are both bundled in coats in my memory in the backyard and the next little brother is too little yet to get him to do things for us.  So the two of us are scheming and concocting away.  In my memory I am probably 8ish and he then is 5/6ish.  We are two and a half years apart.  We are each other’s best friends and greatest enemy at times.  He is the one I fought the most with…and probably mostly because we are closer in age.

And we are very different people.  My younger brother finds sports early and falls in love.  I dally in a few sports but decide it’s not my thing….early on as well.  I play violin and he has the long fingers for piano.   I am super extroverted and always have been and my younger brother would much prefer quiet moments and less people around.  We both have big opinions but I choose to blast mine and he waits to reveal. We continue to come back to one another as kids because it is easier to play with each other than to wander around on our own.  We ride our bikes, pick blackberries, play in the orchard in our designated trees and swing lots and lots.  We scheme..or more I scheme and he follows along with whatever idea I convince him is a good one.

When the next brother is old enough, they find sports together and run around the basketball court we have made.  We still all play football sometimes and throw a baseball, especially when we are lucky enough that our Dad comes out to play too. When the youngest gets old enough to play, I am already moving into pre teen ness so the three boys find places to hang out a lot easier.

As we grow into adults, I am lucky to have three brothers I really like and admire as grown men.  They are good people with great big hearts and I adore their families that they have been creating.

My younger brother and I are still very different people and yet I am so lucky that in adulthood we have found each other again, as good friends I think.  He is an amazing daddy to two amazing girls.  He is strong and feels deeply.  He is loyal and while I think would still prefer quieter spaces I am grateful for his listening to me whenever we are present to one another. I have a deep respect for Grant.  He stays active and stays more informed than most of us, even beyond what his job requires.  He also stays informed in our lives.  He loves a good sweet yummy thing and loves being with gathered family.

I know I can count on him.

Happy birthday, little brother!  Love you!