Tag Archives: bittersweet love

Brothers in Arms ©️

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Good morning, Cicely.

Today’s not about politics or poetry or wild dreams of transcendence. Today’s about my brother. And the ache that lives just beneath the ribcage when you love someone who’s far away—not just in miles, but in the kind of life they now live.

He’s eleven years younger than me. My little brother. But you know how time works—it stretches and collapses. You blink, and suddenly the kid who used to run after you barefoot through the gravel is a man. A husband. A father.

He married a Swede. Moved halfway across the world to build a life she could believe in. And now he’s over there, doing what good men do—holding his family together. Being strong. Being present. Even when it’s hard.

I know his wife’s struggling right now. And I know what it’s like to carry a family on your back while still trying to keep your own spirit from sagging under the weight. He’s doing his best. I see that. I feel that. And I’m proud of him in that quiet, older-brother kind of way—where pride doesn’t shout, it just nods.

But still… I miss him.

I miss the river. The Yellowstone. The way we used to float downstream like we didn’t have a care in the world. Just the sound of water slapping the raft, a cooler full of something cold, and miles of sky above us. I miss those walks, too. The kind where you don’t even talk, just walk, because sometimes words can’t hold everything two brothers share.

And yeah, I want him to come home.

I want to see him throw his girls in the air and hear their laughter echo through the pines. I want to sit on the porch with him and talk about nothing. About everything. About how weird it is to get older. About how hard it is to be good. About Dad. About life.

But he’s doing what’s right. What’s best for his family. And that’s what real men do. They stay. They show up. Even when they miss home. Even when they miss you.

So this is my radio signal across the ocean. A brother’s broadcast. If you can hear me—just know I love you. I miss you. And I’m rooting for you every single day. You’re not alone. You never were.

This is Chris in the Morning, KBHR 570 AM, sending a little warmth to a younger brother in a colder country.

Ghetto Superstar ©️

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It was one of those dreams where everything is softer, slower, like watching the world through a sheet of old glass. I was standing on a street that felt like somewhere I’d been before—a town that might have been mine, or maybe hers. The sky was a hushed shade of violet, the kind that happens just before a storm, when the world holds its breath.

And then Megan was there.

She wasn’t far, just at the edge of the sidewalk, half in the light, half in the shadows, her hair lifted slightly by a breeze that wasn’t real. She had that look—the one she used to give me when we were almost something. A tilt of the head, a trace of a smile, something unreadable in her eyes. I wanted to call out to her, but my voice caught in my throat, as if the dream itself had decided that words weren’t allowed.

She walked toward me, slow and deliberate, as if she knew the rules better than I did.

“You still dream about me?” she asked, though her lips never moved.

Not a single moment, not a single night, but all of it. The brush of her fingers once, in a crowded room. The way her laughter always seemed to linger in the air a little longer than anyone else’s. The almosts. The nearlys. The things that never happened but could have, should have.

I nodded.

And then, just like that, she was gone.

No fanfare, no goodbyes. Just the empty street, the hush of violet light, the feeling of something unfinished curling around the edges of the dream.

I woke up reaching for her name, but it slipped away like a wisp of smoke, vanishing before I could catch it.