Happy Birthday to my brother Ron

Somewhere along the way I learned life gifts are lavish. The small farm, a creek winding near my boyhood home, raking leaves for a neighbor, coming home to Mom, loving my big, strong Dad. One could write for days of remembering and reveling, the silent joyful sighs constant in the heart. Comes to mind the basketball games too late, supper in haste before homework, passing beloved siblings on basement stairs, mowing the yard and washing the car on otherwise lazy Saturdays. There is no end to the lavish, and it includes an unfinished treehouse in the old Cottonwood, helping Dad paint the barn, hunting quail and rabbits and squirrels, visiting Grandma in Manhattan.

In the midst of this endless list are my brothers, a tome of their own overwhelmed with love and gladness. And today I remember one of the three who has a birthday. Not just any birthday, mind you, but one that comes on the 40th April after that happy day in Kansas. I was 18 and away in Florida for another lavish gift, Bible College. And Dad called -- or Mom, I don't recall -- with the news our baby brother was here. They came to visit that May and what joy it was, a life memory and treasure.

I'll not go long, or at least don't mean to. I wrote another time of this one-of-three brother, all of whom are life-gifts to me. But on Ron's birthday, this special one, I want to say how very much I have loved him across the years, and more now in the great grace of life God gives. I am often overwhelmed at the goodness we can know in family love, and Ron has been that for all of us.

I will remember a bit, briefly. There was the walk/run 5K last year in Fairbanks, the road trip to Valdez and the unplanned hike on same trip; the countless discussions of great variety; KU graduation and tech questions answered without effort; exquisite humor shared without words; coffee and projects and talking and games. Most of all, perhaps, the simple joy of being-with, when it can be.

The gift of together is lavish, and when we have it we know. "We pick up where we left off" except there's no picking up -- we just talk again, and feel the pain of distance eclipsed by the joy of together. And if this seems "too much" it is because I can't say it well enough. There really is a joy beyond knowing in brotherly love, and I know nothing else but to give God thanks for it. Only he could make possible something so good.

So I finish by saying again how much I love my brother, Ron; how glad I am our folks were gifted with him and in turn gifted the rest of us. I could brag on him for awhile, for there is plenty of 'material' there! But I will just say again how much I love him and miss him and look forward to being together once again when life allows.