Last week I divulged to the treasured audience of this column how close my brother and sister and I are despite the fact that we each live on a different continent.
A reader suggested we perfectly display the axiom “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” He said his four adult siblings all live within “striking distance of each other” but do not socialize. He said they hadn’t all had a meal together in 15 years!
Perhaps there’s an element of truth to his observation about my brother and sister, but I really think it’s minuscule. Despite the distance we’re in each other’s lives quite a lot! My brother and I talk a lot on the phone, sometimes daily, depending on the magnitude of what either of us may be facing. Then, he visits sometimes twice a year – especially if there’s a significant event in my sons’ lives. My sister and I exchange greetings and check in with each other so much it’s hard to even imagine there’s a vast ocean between us. She’s visited here with such investment that I have friends who think she lives here!
Maybe it’s absence that makes the effort to connect more focused.
I’ll close with a challenge to that reader and others of similar experience – make it happen…. call your extended family and enjoy the rewards of deeper and determined connection.
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