Thoughts on a Sunday Evening

I just got off the phone with my brother who lives in California. I miss Mike, and I wish that he lived closer to us; however, he and his lovely wife, Monique, enjoy living on the beautiful Monterey Peninsula, so I need to be content with frequent phone calls and sporadic visits. We talked a great deal about politics, the recent election, California's Proposition 8, and the current state of the world. Mike and I see eye-to-eye on pretty much everything, which I'm sure comes from how we used to always stick up for each other as kids. We moved around a great deal as children, attending a new school just about every year before we were teenagers, and we frequently found ourselves needing to make new friends. Having a brother who was also my best friend made it much easier for me to adjust as we arrived in our new surroundings. When Mike asks me how I'm doing and how Tina and the kids are coping, I know that I can be perfectly candid with him, and I thank my Father in Heaven for loved ones with whom I can have such frank and open conversations. He asked me those questions during our conversation tonight, and I was pleased to report that we're in a healthy place right now. We feel blessed and strengthened to be able to bear the burden of Peter's death, and we feel like our hearts have been softened so that none of our family members have felt overcome by bitterness or anger. We've prayed for these blessings, and God, as always, has heard our prayers. I enjoyed talking to Mike, and I need to talk to him more often just like I need to talk to my sister, Ali, more frequently; she's back in the states after an extended time overseas, and I look forward to visiting her in her new home in New York before Christmas.