SIBLINGS SIBLINGS

„We all have sisters and brothers. Souls with whom we are connected, rooted, in one way or another. We feel them in the depths where our roots meet, and they feel us.

We stand up for each other. We care for each other. We learn from each other. We take responsibility. We learn to be role models. Together we learn to understand what it means to deal with each other, to assert ourselves, to give in, to forgive and to be considerate. We strengthen each other – and sometimes we challenge each other.

It is a long process in which we have to learn to accept each other, even though we are different. Sometimes we are so different that we have to let go of each other in order not to lose each other.

I also have countless siblings, here and there. We are bound by eternal bonds that nothing can shake. No rivalry is necessary, because our mother loves us all and cares for each and every one of us. She has taught us to protect each other.

Once one of us has fallen, the whole story hidden within is revealed. Year after year is written down, bearing witness to what has happened to it, to all the cold and every ray of sunshine it has received. But this is neither a death sentence nor the end.
My brothers and sisters warm you on cold winter evenings. They are the beams that hold up your house, the door to your home and the bed in which you lie. They are the security of your cradle and the cover of your coffin.

When they are alive, they are silent, no more than a whisper and a murmur. But in death their voice is eternal – in instruments, shaped from their wood, melodies sing their stories forever and their song carries their message: of harmony, of comfort, of trust in themselves and the world.

This is the circle of life: keep it in mind and be respectful of the life they, like so many others, have given for you.“