When my family lived in Colorado, I would often go long periods without being able to see my brothers, sisters, and mother. While I tried to make it happen every year, and though I did see my mother that often, there were sometimes periods of two years in which I didn’t see siblings. In one case, I’m pretty sure it was significantly longer once. Now that I’m in Pennsylvania, I see most of them quite a bit more. But something weird has happened. 

While I believe it is true that absence makes the heart grow fonder- not knowing what you have until it’s gone and all that- I think that presence makes it grow fonder, too, at least with the great people. I guess it isn’t just the presence but absence after presence. Let me explain. 

I see most of my siblings now about once every six weeks. The greatest joy in moving east for me has been this, and there are a lot of joys to choose from. I have gone on many adventures with them, had laughter and tears, I’ve celebrated holidays and small celebrations. In this past (almost) two years I’ve been part of so many family lunches and dinners and conversations and movie nights that I don’t even know how many there have been. Even though I see my siblings so often and take part in these amazing and mundane events, I miss them. What’s even stranger is that I miss them more than I did before. 

There are lots of reasons I could miss them more now. It could be that I was so much younger when I moved, and not just in years, and now we’re all equals. It could be that now we’re more than siblings, but friends. It could be a lot of things. All I know is that I am in a wonderful place where I have been given the gift of loving people enough to miss them when they’re not around, and I won’t ever take them for granted again.