Family Reunion

It is hard to describe how much I love my family.  It’s a healthy love, not clannish or obligatory in any way; rather it is a connection so deep as to be unfathomable, and our desire to have gatherings regularly and spend time together has been there as long as I can remember.

My mom has often commented that we are fortunate to have what we have in our family, this bond that so many people do not have.  The longer I’m alive the more I agree with her.   As my sister said when we parted at our recent family reunion, how very blessed we all are!   We want to keep up with what is going on in each other’s lives.  We love our inside jokes and all the laughs that happen at our gatherings, we weep when one has a sorrow, we rejoice when there is an accomplishment or new grandchild, and we pray when there are concerns for we know that God is in control and He hears our prayers.  

As the self-appointed family scribe for our annual reunions, I can testify to the endless supply of quick witticisms that dart between us.  It’s so much fun, and usually so funny, that it is hard to keep up sometimes and hard to enjoy the last comment because the repartee is constant. 

Like all families we are a blend of our past, present and future.  Our ancestors on my mother’s side have been Texans for many generations, and as I like to say the blood and independent spirit of Texicans and American revolutionaries runs in our veins.  There are professionals, college graduates, those established in their chosen trade or field, teachers, project managers, stay-at-home mothers, administrative workers, bankers, fireman, financial decision makers, pilots, those who have traveled abroad for work and for pleasure, business owners, purchasing and warehousing, high-tech managers, HR managers – and that’s just in my immediate family of parents, siblings and our children.  As I write it I marvel again at the diverse paths our individual lives have taken yet the path we all return to is the one that starts with the umbilical cord.   With the passage of time some of us have married, divorced, been widowed or remain single, and while our group is blessed with the spouses we have added our unity transcends marital status.

My heart is filled with gratitude that once again we were able and willing to gather for visiting and eating and swimming and boating and matching shirts and watching after the little ones, and we have all returned safely home to resume our daily lives.  None of us knows what this coming year will bring, but we all know that, God willing, we will all be together again this time next year.   And we look forward to it.