30 Days of Gratitude Day 8 - My Brothers

Today, maybe because I was thinking of family or perhaps feeling a little homesick, I was thinking of my two brothers. Both of my brothers, one older and one younger, are unique. We always had a running joke in our family about whether or not "I was the rose between two thorns" or "the thorn between two roses." I'm sure more of the latter as I was quite a pistol to them growing up. We were not what you would call super close when we were little. I'm pretty sure that if you asked my brothers they would tell you in their own words what an absolute pain I was. With that said and knowing that we could fight like cats and dogs, if anyone else ever tried to mess with one of us the other two would ALWAYS have each others back.


My older brother Kevin is an accomplished designer and owns his own construction business. He has my Dad's gift with design and an eye for artistic home improvement. I remember when he built me a real "Barbie dream house" (4 stories high) out of leftover bits and pieces of stuff from my Dad's construction sites. He and my little brother even hand carved Barbie beds with intricate design on the headboards for me. I'm not lying when I say that I had the coolest Barbie house on the block. The year our Aunt from Texas sent my brothers an Erector Set was the best. They created spin art machines with that set as well as roller coasters and all kinds of robotic creatures.


My little brother Kirk (who coincidently likes to be referred to as my "younger" brother instead of "little" brother) leans more towards my Mom's side of the family. He, too, is equally talented. Always an artist at heart, he has been drawing and painting and creating fantastic pieces of art since he first learned how to hold a pencil. It's no surprise that he now owns his own graphic design company and though his talent pays the bills, and his work is mostly computer generated, his creativity still comes from the soul. One thing that binds us together is our work ethic and our passion to our individual families. It was our Daddy who taught us to always do a good day's work and always try to do better tomorrow than you did today. Writing this makes me realize that I don't tell them enough how important they are too me. How much I admire them as fathers and providers for their families. They both love their wives and children with such passion and they also know how to laugh (which, as I think I remember telling you a few days ago, is a real gift). Yep, my wonderful brothers mean the world to me and even if I don't tell them frequently, I hope they know in their own hearts just how thankful I am to have them as my very own thorns... err.. I mean roses. i'm jus' sayin'!

"To the outside world, we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time."
~ Clara Ortega