Sunday Night With John: 6/23/1997 to 6/23/2019

It is well past my bedtime, 12:30 a.m. to be exact. My brother and I chat about life in his house. We both are family men now, so the late night conversations are fewer, more time passes between them, and they do not go into the wee hours of morning anymore. But, they are still important, still a measure of the men we have become. I'm in Ohio for my nephew's graduation party while my girls get to bond with my side of our family. It's a good time. 

It's a weekend of celebrations which is the direct opposite of what this weekend was 22 years ago. 6-23-97 was the day my dad died. We all have days from our past that we measure ourselves by. It could  be a divorce, a move, a death, mental health break, overdose, medical diagnosis or even one of numerous happy moments that occur. Our lives move forward, we grieve, we grow or stumble, we add or subtract people, start families. We all come back to those dates and measure how far we've come. 

These dates become milestones in our lives, the emotional wave breakers to the march of time. They remind us of the worst or best possible outcomes life has to offer and allow us to gauge where we are in this moment. We are reminded both of our younger years and the slow march we take into the future with hope that better days are ahead, filled with great memories. 

So I linger with my brother longer than I should. I know how troublesome the journey from 6/23/97 to  6/23/19 has been. It was dicey but a journey that has proven to constantly show me the greatness of life and the people I'm lucky enough to call family and friends. So my brother and I push the night for five more minutes. It feels great to talk life even if I don't always agree with someone who knows me so well, someone I consider a best friend. Life is good, and knowing we won't always have this is the best reason to allow it to linger a little longer.

We are way more than what we were on 6-23-97; we are people my dad would be proud of but, more importantly, we are two men who respect each other's lives. I have measured myself against a day from 22 years ago and I have found myself with good results. I hope the day(s) you measure yourself against lead to the measurement of the soul that you are hoping to achieve.