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A Life Full of Care and Free From Worry


My brother and I are 15 months apart, practically Irish twins, and you couldn’t get more Irish with names like "Katie and Patrick" and my brother being born on St. Patrick’s Day. While we grew up in the same household and share the same parents, there are more ways that we are different than we are alike. While we share having curly hair, the same nose, and blue eyes - even standing next to each other people wouldn’t believe we were related let alone siblings. When it comes to disposition, we were on opposite ends of the spectrum as children. Being the older sibling, teachers having my brother the next year were often shocked to find out that we were related.

Growing up we both shared a love of climbing any and all things but mostly trees! While we both started out fearless in conquering the scaling of branches and seeing how high we could get, our reaction to getting down was much different. Sure, it was all fun and games when we were climbing and looking out into the world from new heights, but I found myself paralyzed with fear when it was time to descend. I believe that fear is the root of our worry and I couldn’t begin to count how many worries I had at the top of the tree. It would be so embarrassing to have to have another person, often my grandfather, come and help me down. When I got too high up, a ladder would have to be brought out with a lecture on how I shouldn’t climb trees or things that I wasn’t willing to climb down myself. My brother on the other hand, continued to be so fearless that he wouldn’t climb down either. Instead he would JUMP down! He also received lectures, although it usually happened at an Urgent Care. 

When I think back on those events, I realize my brother and I illustrate the spectrum of fear. On one end is paralyzing worry and the other end is careless action or non-action. I don’t believe a person is or experiences either/or but lives a life of both/and. However, I believe our sweet spot is learning to lead a life of care which will bring purpose and focus. We are to live a life full of care and free from worry. 



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