Me: Why are you driving your sister crazy?  Why are you following her around?

Sean:  Because I love her.

When you're 5 years old, your 8 year older sister hangs the moon. She's the biggest influence in your life and even though she yells at you, hits you and tells you to go away, you can't stop loving her. Partly because driving her nuts is so much fun.

Growing up being the middle son and the 3rd oldest of 4, I don't recall too many serious moments or times where we didn't love each other to the point of driving each other crazy. We fought and shouted, but in the same minute we were throwing things at each other, we couldn't bear to be away from each other. If anyone ever wished to do any of us harm, we would not stand for it. (Sometimes I wonder if my sister was so protective of us because we were hers and hers alone to torture and she didn't like the competition).

My sister Kim, the oldest, would scream at us at the top of her lungs and threatened to kill us!   My brother Michael would retaliate by putting a yellow towel on his head (to mock her hair) and then would scream and make up words just to weaken her case for being upset with us. The more Kim yelled, the more he poked. The more he poked, the harder it was for her to keep a straight face. Whenever she barked out orders, which is what you do when mom and dad would leave you in charge while they were gone, we would call her "boss". "Ok boss!  You got it boss!  Whatever you want boss". It drove her so crazy her head would explode!  She'd want to kill us, but would end up laughing as she chased us around the house. Love and hate. The balance of family.

Love. Never discount the importance of love. It is the secret sauce in every aspect of life. Food is better with love as an ingredient, relationships are obviously better when rooted in love and your work is more rewarding when it is based in love.

Also, don't discount hate. They say the opposite of love is not hate. It's actually apathy. Hate still implies you have passion for something. You care enough to hate it. When you can easily walk way from something or you become indifferent, then you no longer feel for it. You're done. You're numb and that's apathy.

I think we have all been at a crossroads with something or someone where our love has been challenged.

#Tryharder to identify the things you love as well as hate in this world. Understand that just because you hate something, doesn't mean you need to remove it from your life. It's balance. You can't run around loving everybody and everything, nor can you do the same with hate. Love. Hate. All needed in the overall balance of life and the balance of relationships.

Yes, I still believe it's important to fill your life with more things you love over the number of things you hate, but don't disregard the importance of the discomfort that comes with hate. Hate helps drive you in aspects where love cannot. Hate gives you a better appreciation for the things you love and helps you to realize what's important.

Love and hate. All good stuff. Don't get it twisted.

sleeping bag siblings