A surprising thing happened on the morning my brother Carver was born, a thing that turned life on our small farm in South Carolina upside down.
It was March 16.
The window in momma and daddy’s bedroom was open because spring had come early and momma appreciated the cool morning breeze blowing through the cotton curtains after her long night of labor.
With the breeze came a lightning bug.
Did it stay up all night, flashing its light to the sleeping world?
Or did it sleep all night, taking flight at dawn, shining its light on the waking world?
“You always askin’ questions,” said my daddy to me as I walked my shoeless feet through the newly turned soil one morning.
His hands were on the plow, he was following our old mule Charlie and I was following him.
“That’s a good thing, though, askin’ questions is,” continued daddy.
“Did you know questions make the world go forward, like I’m drivin’ ol’ Charlie here down the row?
Did you know questions can turn the world upside down, like the plow turns the rocky ground into helpful soil?
Did you know questions are like no seeds we’re gonna plant in these rows?
It takes a long time to get from seeds to fruits and vegetables, and it takes a long time to get from questions to answers,too.
But seeds change to food that feeds people and questions change to answers that can make the world a better place.
You keep askin’ questions, Carter. Always keep askin’ questions.”
I’ve always tried to do just that, to ask as many questions as I can.
Here was the surprising thing that happened with my brother’s birth.
He was wrapped in a blanket, snuggled by momma’s side with his brown eyes wide open.
He was as still as the water in our farm pond on a late May afternoon.
The lightning bug that came into the room with the breeze lit gently on his nose.
I watched in wonder as my brother blinked his eyes four short blinks and the lightning bug blinked its light four short times.
He blinked his eyes three long blinks and it blinked its light three long blinks.
Was my brother talking with the lightning bug?
Was such a thing possible?
To help me see I could believe my eyes, he blinked one short, two long, and one short blinks and the lightning bug blinked the same.
He finished with one short blink and it gave a final short blink before it took flight and went out the window through which it came.
It was at that moment I knew the answer to the question we all ask deep in our hearts – How can we be useful?
I was meant to live life beside my brother and write down what was inside him.
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