FAMILY

 I hope something happened this week to make you laugh outright and a task  that made you stretch, even a little, to reach a little higher and gave you a sense of pride and accomplishment.  And, that you took even a little time for yourself, to dream, to think and to grow (or to take a nap).

This week I did something wonderful.  My family and I scheduled our semi-annual get together. Now, some of you may think, well, that’s not so wonderful!  I assure you it is.   Like many families, after graduation we each went our separate ways: one married and moved away, another joined the Navy and went to sea, and I moved half-way across the country to see what life was like away from home.  My middle sister stayed home with Mom.

A year or so after I moved away, I remember my Mom telling me she was convinced my brother, sisters, and I would never see each other again after she left this Earth. We were not only geographically apart, we seemed to be emotionally far apart as well.   I imagine some of you reading this can relate.  Many high school graduates have one goal after graduating – getting as far away from home as possible.

Our family was one of the lucky ones.  After we moved out on our own, our mother decreed we would all get together every couple of years and none of us really wanted to tell her “no.”  We weren’t sure what would happen if we did, but no one wanted to find out.  And, as we got together over the years, infrequently though it was, we began to see each other as people and not just as a child we had to deal with.

We began to develop our own relationships with each other. Each one of us is our own person, with very different ideas of how things should be, and even how things were when we were growing up.  But time has softened the edges and we have learned a little more about what is, and is not, so important.  Now our get togethers are a time of laughter and joy and remembering how we got to where we are.

If this doesn’t happen in your family, is it something you can change?  For those of us who are lucky enough to have siblings, they are a big part of who we are.  They know we have issues and they know how we got them.  They may have given them to us!  (My brother is still trying to convince me I was adopted.)  But they are also the ones who can help us deal with the issues.

Think, just for a minute, how you would feel if you got a phone call from someone telling you any one of your siblings passed away.  Live in that moment for a few minutes.  If there is anything left unsaid or undone, make that call or do what needs to be done now.   Please don’t let it wait.  Once they are gone it is too late.  You will always be connected with your siblings, whether you think so or not.   Do your best to make that connection a strong, healthy one. 

During the coming week I hope at least once each day you will look in the mirror and say, “Well, hello, Gorgeous!”

'Til next time,

Carole