Sibling Similarities

One time, my niece Tonya said to me, "I hate going to the store with you. You are just like my Dad. There's always somebody you know and you talk forever."

It is true, I am a talker. I've recently gotten the same feedback from Trevor when we made a "quick stop" at the local Kroger and ran into a childhood neighbor. We were there a long time.

I think my brothers Bob and Keith and I have that in common. We can strike up a conversation with just about anyone. I'm in Florida now and was very glad that I was able to overlap the dates of my trip to spend the weekend with my brother Bob. When I was driving from the airport to meet him we spoke on the phone and arranged to meet at a local restaurant / bar. When I arrived, Bob had already made friends with the people sitting around him and knew where they were from, why they were in Florida, etc. I think we were raised to be friendly; we had good role models for that in my Mom and Dad.

I suppose as we get older, it is comforting to see these similarities between me and my siblings. Yesterday when we were walking through a town after dinner, I had stopped for a minute, but when I caught up with Bob he was talking to a couple of local people who were walking a beautiful yellow Labrador retriever. This past summer, Keith made fun of me when the McDonald's lady in Gatlinburg, Tennessee brought me a book on native plants. (We had been talking while I did my morning work sessions for Big Red, and I had asked her about some plants I had seen). But really, Keith has no room to make fun, because I think the funnel cake guy in Gatlinburg knows him by name.

My brother Bob and I have similar handwriting. Even though he is a lefty and I am right-handed, we have the same printing. Sometimes, I will see something that I wrote and for a split second think that Bob wrote it. He says that he's noticed the same thing.

And today, Bob and I found one more thing that we have in common. We were both swimming in the Gulf of Mexico and I commented that I should have taken my contacts out, as I'm wearing my last pair. Bob said, "What is your prescription?" And of course, his prescription is exactly the same as mine. In both eyes. I don't know if that is rare or not, but it seems like it would be to me. He left me one of his spare pairs of contacts just in case the Gulf swallows mine up this week.

I am so thankful for my siblings, especially my two brothers. I once had read that your siblings will be the people who know you for the longest time in your life and that it is a very special friendship that develops because of that. I am very fortunate to get to spend time with my brothers and their families and I am grateful for everything we share.