I had dinner with my brother. Over the years my brother and I have had a pretty up and down relationship. When I was little we shared a bedroom, we slept in bunkbeds, him on the bottom and me on top. Eventually we put our beds on opposite sides of the room. Most days he would ignore me or rib me, as an older brother does. Eventually it got so bad I moved my bed into the closet just so I could have my own 'room' (yes, this actually happened). He liked it and so did I! When my parents finished the basement, they built in another bedroom so he moved down there. I loved it because it gave me my own room for the first time! Eventually I went off to college and he stayed in the basement. We would really only see each other when I was in town. Our relationship wasn't great, but we never had any animosity towards each other, it was more like 'yup, that's my brother.' He joined the military and for the next twenty years we would see each other, at most, once a year. This worked quite well for us actually! I got married, moved jobs, had a kid. All while he was doing the military thing. Recently, he retired and moved back in temporarily with Mom and Papa while he and his family find a new place to live. With him in the area again, I figured it was time to call him up and share a meal and chat, just the two of us. I gave him a call and he was up for it! We met up at a nice restaurant in Allegan and spent a couple hours catching up, just talking through what we've each been up to for the last 20+ years. It was really strange because we are both such different people than we were the last time we lived under the same roof! We got a chance to talk about life, fatherhood, jobs, faith, and family. It was so normal and yet so absolutely strange... We are in such different places, he and I, but it was so nice to catch up with him while we are in the same place- for probably the first and last time in our lives!
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