A little while ago I told my sister Ruth that I couldn’t think of anything that I was grateful for. What I more correctly should have said was that I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about being grateful for. Without expending a great deal of energy I can say that I am grateful for spending time with Ruth today. I am always grateful for this and exceedingly grateful to be living close enough to her and my other two sisters to make such connections regular occurrences. So of course I am grateful for family as usual.
I am sitting in my sister’s kitchen where she is cooking dinner. I have been a very regular beneficiary of dinner with my sister and her family ever since I moved here a year ago. There’s something wonderfully normal about being over here: the preparing of the meal, joining hands to say our family grace (that we said when we were children), and the always entertaining banter between my sister’s family. Ruth’s children are ten years younger than mine–there are ten years between my oldest and hers and between my younger and hers. So it occurs to me that coming over causes me to reminisce about what it was like as I was raising my two kids. It provides a sense of family for me that I haven’t experienced much in the last few years. And for that I am grateful.
Over the past few days I’ve spoken to my sister on the phone and have found as always a willing and empathic listener, who offers advice, encouragement, and the occasional gentle reprimand when in the heat of my anger or irritation about something she needs to offer me a different perspective on what I am railing about. There are few people in my life who hold the place that she holds, so when I write about being grateful for family, she is at the top of the list. I was explaining to her today that if one were to survey everyone in my family to ask which of us was universally loved by everyone, Ruth would likely be at the top of everyone’s list, followed closely by my brother Coco (not his real name.) There is a particular quality to each of them that puts them at the top, though each of them denies being special in any way.
I am grateful for the simple but wonderful blessing of family and having close relationships with my siblings. While we have differing degrees of connections with one another, we are nonetheless connected. I am aware of people who have not spoken to their siblings in years and don’t know where they are living. While I can scarcely imagine not being in at least semi-regular contact with my siblings, many people live this way. I can’t help but believe that if everyone had a single connection with another human being that is as strong and comforting as my relationships are with some of my siblings, the world would be a far happier place.
