“Take good care of Dani, Max; you’ll never know how precious she is, until you lose her.”
– Thackery Binx, Hocus Pocus

Four years.

As of yesterday, I have been blogging for four years.

In that time, I’ve had some ups and downs, a number of changes in my life, some bigger, some smaller. There have been better times, and worse times. You know who was always there for me either way? My family, most especially my mother and my sister.

I have been very blessed to have good family, regardless of our own disagreements. I like to think I’ve been good to them in return, but I know there’s always room for improvement. 😉

So, as I was turning over the insides of my brain for a proper quote from some Halloween-themed story, I suddenly recalled this classic from my childhood, and I was like, it struck a chord in me.

Binx is a character very familiar with loss. He was a young man when his little sister, Emily, was murdered right in front of him by a trio of witches. He tried to save her, but failed, and three centuries is a long time to live with sorrow like that. So, when he tells his new friend Max to take care of his own little sister, Dani, it carries the weight of heavy, mournful experience behind it.

Max is a typical teenage boy with a typical little sister. Which is to say, they annoy and aggravate each other tremendously, but they love each other. Max has thus far put up with Dani, taken her trick-or-treating (albeit with some parental coercion), shielded her from the local bullies, cheered her up and made her laugh, and protected her from witches. Then, when the situation turns truly dire at the climax of the film, Max doesn’t hesitate for a moment to offer up is own life in place of Dani’s.

Clearly he heard what Binx was saying, and clearly he’s a good brother in both big and little ways.

That is a good brother.

It strikes me that, as someone wise once said, we never know what we have until we lose it. It’s a tremendous shame that such applies to the most valuable thing of all, namely the bonds of love we share with our family. It is a crying shame when we take if for granted, especially considering all the people who don’t have that, but even more considering those who have lost their loved ones.

How many stories are there? Where two people who love each other had some disagreement, and that was the last time they ever saw each other? They had forever to work things out… and then they didn’t have any time at all.

Better to cherish each other now, I think.