Family

Home again after a long week on the road.  There are lots of thoughts bubbling around in my head, and I will eventually share them all with you.  But the first and most important thoughts I want to share are thoughts on family.

I have shared many times how blessed I know I am to have been born into the family I was born into.  I am the third of the four children of my parents, I have an older brother, an older sister, and a younger sister.  I have twenty first cousins on my father's side, and no first cousins on my mother's side.  I have countless cousins on my father's side reaching into many times removed, as family ties are strong and unrelenting in my family.

Growing up, I thought every family was like mine.  I thought my cousin's cousins were my cousins too.  If someone was called family, I embraced them as family.

I moved away from my family's home geography at twenty-six, and never went back there to live.  My brother moved away from my family's home geography at nineteen and never went back there to live.  I am still extraordinarily close to my brother.  The lack of physical proximity has not diminished the strength of my love for him or the profound connection I have to him.

I am also extraordinarily close to my sisters, although I only talk to my younger sister at a regular frequency.  The amount of time or number of contacts with my sisters doesn't diminish my love for them or my connection with them.

I don't see my cousins very often, but when I do it is always a good time.  I love them all, and their children, and their children's spouses, and their children's children.  We have a spectrum of beliefs and occupations, we are physically diverse, but we love one another more than enough to overlook the differences.

As an adult, I know every family is not like mine.  Some families quarrel, and disown each other.  Some families are never given the opportunity to know their cousins and extended relatives.  Some families don't value and love each other.  And that makes me sad.

So where am I going with this?  Well, in spite of having a wonderful, loving and close knit extended family, I added more people.  Sisters and brothers, cousins, nieces and nephews, children, you name the relationship, and there is someone that I treasure, that I call sister or brother or child that shares no blood with me.

Because I'm greedy in that way.  I can never love too many people, or have too many people love me.

So, whatever the accident of your birth, whether born to a family that holds on tight, or into a family that easily lets go, you can still have a large extended loving family.

If it feels right, reach out to family you have lost and try to reconnect.  Recognize the people in your life that you love like family and make them your family of choice.  Love one another unrelentingly and unselfishly.

Life is just better when it is full of love.  You hold the power to have a love-filled life.  It involves a little risk of rejection, but trust me, the risk is well worth the reward.