Finding Himself at 50...

B. Kent Burns, aka my big brother, woke up to find himself at 50 today. Over the course of the past week I have found myself really thinking about it. I have spent a couple of late nights going down memory lane. Looking at old pictures of the two of us. It just seems a bit unreal to me.

I realized that out of those 50 years, we only actually lived together for 13. He was 5 when I was born and went away to college at IU when he was 18. Thirteen years barely seems like a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things. In fact, we built the house I live in now 16 years ago this month. So I have lived here longer than I ever lived with my brother. Somehow though, it feels like we spent a lifetime together in that house on the hill in the woods. And some of the greatest memories I have come from that short period in time.

We had the typical brother/sister love/hate relationship in the early years. And to this day we rarely speak without calling eachother "queer" or "maggot." But to us, those are the terms of highest endearment. There has never been a single day of my life that I have not looked up to, respected, been proud of and loved him beyond measure. He always has been and always will be my hero.

Happy Birthday Queer <3

Christmas morning in Loogootee

Our house in the woods

With our new baby brother

Christmas at Mom's about 9 years ago

Florida 2011

50th Bday Party