As infants and young toddlers you began categorizing the world and the relationships around you. “Say mama” or “say dada” we would chime in the soft, high-pitched tones we had sworn never to use. But we do anyway. We would point to objects and new spaces and places, each filling a void in your new minds with words and pictures. Life seemed so simple in the beginning when the world felt so ordered and concrete. Now our widening conversations (and food budget) provoke a different sort of talk — a deeper, more difficult-to-navigate type of conversing full of “how” and “why” but with it also, a deepening of relational identity. Whereas you once only labeled and knew one another through our defined family roles (dad, mom, brother, sister), those hard lines are bleeding for you now, blurring the space between brother and sister and friend. And this makes my heart swell.
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{friend} shared on Spilled Milk today
