Why Didn't We Do This Earlier?

Our first real conversation about it was on Father's Day this year. In retrospect it was appropriate given the day.

It was the first time I was truly candid with my mom about how I felt about my childhood, growing up with an older father and the effect it has had on my life. I'm sure we've had similar conversation, but this time was different because I was coming from an emotion-free place. No blaming, no tears and no underlying drama from which the conversation spawned (totally out of the norm - at least on these topics). Since then we've had many other conversations about related topics and I think to some degree it's helped strengthen my relationship with my mom. Tonight we touched upon a truly forbidden topic - my brother and I.

Though I have three brothers, when I say "my brother" and don't follow it with a name people know there is only one person I can be talking about. I'm not sure how the topic come up, but it did. As I've done in the other topics I calmly articulated my thoughts (No blaming; No Tears; No Drama). Then it was my mom's turn. Apparently she had had a similar conversation with my brother. This is where the conversation got interesting. What I learned wasn't necessarily shocking, but definitely enlightening. Granted it probably would have been better to have the conversation with my brother, but hey Rome wasn't built in a day - right!? I can say at the end of this day the foundation has definitely been laid and has left me wondering, why didn't we do this earlier?

Until later . . .