from the memory bank

For one reason or another, something I was reading today triggered a memory from a few years back that I'd like to share.

Most of you reading this probably know that I have a younger brother. We have the kind of relationship that I consider to be typical of an older sister/younger brother combo. We didn't particularly get along when we were kids, and fought about stupid crap a LOT. We are VERY DIFFERENT. I cannot stress this enough. But as we've grown older (and wiser??), we've found more and more things to appreciate about each other. At the present, we get along pretty well, as long as we don't have to spend exorbitant amounts of time together.

Anyway, one summer when I was home from college (or possibly shortly after college, but before my brother moved away), I was driving home to my parents' house late at night, and I saw something that took my breath away. The main street near their home is called Silver Glen, and that night I discovered how it got its name. The road goes through a small, low-lying marshy area, and on damp nights such as that one, it tends to gather a little bit of fog. Add to that the full moon overhead and you've got one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in nature. The moonlight shone down on the thick layer of fog over the wetlands and gave it a mystical silver glow. It was magical - like nothing I'd ever seen before. I could see it as I approached in my car, and then drove right through it, emerging from the other side. My first thought was that I wanted to park my car and walk through the fog on the platforms built over the wetlands. But no, I wanted to share this with someone.

My brother is such a night owl that I was sure he'd still be up. And sure enough, I found him watching TV in the living room when I came home. I immediately told him to put his shoes on because there was something I wanted to take him to see. At this point in time, our relationship was in one of its in-between stages. He admired me mostly because I could drink alcohol legally, and I admired him because because he still had so much living to do. As he was getting ready to go, I could see he was getting excited about our adventure, even though he didn't know where we were going. I just hoped he wouldn't be disappointed.

So we drove back to the wetlands and I showed him the thing I found so beautiful that I just had to share with someone. I approached slowly and pointed out the fog and how amazing the moonlight looked reflected off the top. Then we parked the car in the gravel lot off a side road, and walked into the mist.

I am pretty sure that when I pulled my brother out of the house that night and told him there was something I wanted to show him, that he was expecting some kind of underground, thumping, rollicking, drunken party or something like that. I know that what I actually showed him must have been a bit of a disappointment. I'm not really sure that he appreciates the same things as I do, like finding beauty in nature. But my hope is that he could find the beauty in that moment we spent together, or at least that one day he can look back on that night and see it as a precious moment spent with his big sister, when all she wanted was to share with him something that she thought was special.