I've Been Away

The past seven months have been difficult for me personally, and as a result, my voice has been rather quiet in the digital spaces I used to occupy regularly. The only thing I have been able focus on to think and write and talk about has been the loss of my brother, and up until this point I have not been comfortable thinking, writing or talking about that publicly. While I am still not quite ready to do that, I want to at least acknowledge the event to clear the air for my writing to begin again. This post is my attempt to do that, so please allow me the indulgence of talking about myself for a bit.

My brother, Rob Reeves, only 14-months younger than me and 32 years old at the time of his death, was a Navy SEAL on the prestigious SEAL Team 6 (though he was not on the Osama Bin Laden mission). On August 6, 2011, while on a mission in Afghanistan, he and too many of his teammates and other servicemen, lost their lives when their helicopter was shot down by enemy fire. It was the single largest loss of American life in the Afghan war. And because of the high profile nature of this event--being on the cusp of the Bin Laden mission and the number of those lost--my dad and I have been a part of many, many memorials and events, and the recipients of much outreach, and the point of contact for all those that want to do something in Rob's memory. Essentially, our mourning has been and continues to be a long process.

Siblings share a special bond and my brother and I were no different. Rob was my best friend, my confidant and the person that I shared my history with. I know that I will never fully recover from this loss, but I will learn and grow from it. And I will always fervently hang on to the memories of our time together. Perhaps one day I will share some of those memories of joy, laughter, friendship, appreciation and sometimes frustration with you. But today is not that day.In the meantime, to hear more about sibling bonds, check out this recently posted, and timely for me, TED Talk: