What a great gift.

Today is my brother's 75th birthday. I called him this morning to wish him a happy birthday and spent about 45 minutes on the phone. I had a lovely talk with him and his wife, and they brought me up to date on their latest experiences.  Now there was something amazing about this phone call. What made is so unique was there was no a single note of guilt or recrimination. From the moment he answered, he was cheerful and chatty and so was she. I think this is unusual when you consider that I visited them in Massachusetts 2 years ago and haven't called since, and before that I hadn't talked to or seen him for over thirty years and had never met his wife. Yet there was no guilt, no, "Why haven't you called?" We spoke as if we had talked yesterday and we'd been friends for all our lives. Happily, my family doesn't know the meaning of animosity. In fact during this call I learned that my oldest brother, who lives in Italy, is still alive. I thought he died ten years ago. I'm sure if I called him today, after an absence of more than 50 years, he would say, "Hey. Good to hear from you. What's new?"