He Ain't Heavy, ... He's My Brother

I was driving to MMU Cyberjaya using the North South Highway. That is the long way I usually use cos I find it therapeutic to drive and allow my thoughts to linger on the happenings of the day and be refreshed before I reach the CF meeting.

I was as usual listening to "Light n Easy", the old people's channel according to my nephews! And the song playing was "He ain't heavy, He's my brother". The song set me off thinking. I was thinking of a friend I had just sent off to Aceh in the morning ... her life, her giving, her sisterhood in the ups and downs in life. And as I heard the lyrics of the song, my thoughts returned to her ...

We were once strangers. We were once from different cultures. We were once from different professions. We were once from different families. Now over the last 13 years, we have become friends, We have come into the same culture ~ Chinese Indian. We have become fellow fulltime workers. We have become family ... she is my sister.

I thought of all we had been through ... disasters in the profession; family crises; financial difficulties; homelessness; dark nights; and off course ... the laughter, the movies, the sharings, the sarcasm, the teasing, the ..... list goes on and on.

How did a stranger become a friend? How did a friend become a sister? By taking the RISK of being real and of going through umpteen times of "fighting" and knowing we could fight because there was love between us! Just the night before, we were talking about 2 other friends who said that they had never ever fought before! So she half told me, half asked me, "We must be the worst of friends, huh? Since we fight so much! And yet, we love each other." We were driving then, and I said, that's what makes us sister ~ we fight, we love, and we are simply family!!

The song came back into my consciousness, (... the actual story is about 2 brothers ~ one crippled and the other normal. One dependant, the other independent. One dead and the other alive!)

The road is long with many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where, who knows when
But I'm strong, strong enough to carry him
He ain't heavy, he's my brother.

So on we go, his welfare is of my concern
No burden is he to bear
We'll get there for I know he would not encumber me .....



Yeah! Now I know how she had become my sister .... the road was long and windy. We didn't know where we would turn or end up. But my welfare (and hers) became her (my) concern. No burden was I (she) to bear. I (she) ain't heavy, I (she) am her sister!!

I drove on to MMU thanking God that I had a sister ... who didn't think me a burden. She had prayed me through countless dark nights. She had laughed with me, when I wanted to share my joy. That's how my stranger had become a friend and a sister!!

Yeah, yeah, yeah! Bearing one another .... not as a burden ... making their welfare our concern. Hey, how many brothers and sisters do you have?!