My Valentines Day Angel

When I was 7.5 years old I woke up very early on Valentines Day morning, so early that it was still dark. It smelled like burnt coffee throughout the house and I heard conversation and laughing. Most importantly to me, I heard BOTH of my parents voices in the kitchen and I was giddy with excitement. You see, it had been many months since my Mom and Dad were at home at the same time because one of them was always at the hospital with my brother Brian. I jumped out of bed and ran to the kitchen to see them... they were surrounded by family... my uncle and aunts and my grandmothers... then my memory goes into slow motion as I remember what happened next. 
That morning, I had no idea that this day would change so much for me, immediately and also long term, and “shape so much of who I am”. I had no idea that on this day of love, many years ago, I would lose my innocence, learn the fragility of life and start down a long journey of healing. 
Which means... Brian was a great teacher in my life. 
This isn’t a story of a sick child who gets better, I don’t get to tell you how my family recovered from a near hit and how grateful we are and what it did to inspire us and help others. BUT I do get to tell you we took the hit and it hurt. We had the loss and it changed our family and made us closer and more loving 💕. I can tell you we are grateful for our time with Brian and what we learned from this about life and loving others and it’s caused all of us to hold a light for those who go through darkness like this. We took what we learned and we teach... and I can say that what I learned is to love deeply, NOW. In this moment. Whoever is near me. 
I used to despise that Brian died on Valentines Day. I used to think it was cruel and unfair that a day that caused us so much pain, others celebrated LOVE. It broke my heart to see my mom in excruciating pain while others celebrated the very opposite of what we were feeling on this day - we felt we had a deep loss of love and certainly nothing to celebrate. 
Today, I know there isn’t any other day that would be appropriate to lose our Brian on.... I know we lost the body, not the love... he was a teacher of LOVE and he went home to unconditional, all encompassing, and unending LOVE. Today as we celebrate this day, let us be open to removing our blocks to the presence of love so we can freely and abundantly give and receive it with ALL.
Love you and peace sweet brother, take care of my Michael and show him the ropes 😘 #ValentinesDay2019 #HeartDay #OneDayAtATime #GuardianAngels#Love #One #Peace #MyAngels #BrotherBrian #Family #Heaven