I often feel that days have themes.  Subjects that everyone you speak about seem to be referencing or experiencing.  Most often, you are experiencing these as well.  This is just such a day.  The subject –  Gifts My Family Gave To Me

Gifts my family gave to me:  To start, we must realize that when we are younger, we may certainly NOT see these as gifts.  It’s not until you have enough birthdays do you realize what these experiences really were and how they impacted you on who you are today.  Let’s get started.

While we were not always perfect at this, it’s the truth that brought us back home time and again.  Our parents both have passed, yet my brother, sister and I work to continue to embody and strengthen the importance of family staying together. Many people don’t understand the reason for family, thus they miss the gifts that only family can bring you.

Gift #1 – Being a challenge to their balance. Each of you are here to challenge each others balance, whether it’s in memories, beliefs or more.  Most family’s may not have a lot in common. Where families get off track is they confuse the word challenge for fight.  To challenge is to offer each person another view point to take into consideration.  It doesn’t mean you have to adapt or believe it.  Perhaps just to see it through another persons lens without judgement or disagreement.  Just because someone else perceived an experience one way and you another, doesn’t mean someone is right or wrong.  Each person’s perception is their reality.

Gift #2 – Family bond will stay together no matter what. Hopefully the family has produced a strong enough bond of love and respect for one another, that we don’t have to agree on everything, each member finds it’s better to be happy than force their opinion of “right.”  Each person’s perception is their reality.  As children, the family bond might have looked like “You fight and pick on each other all the time and that’s alright.  However…hell hath no furry if someone outside the family picked on your sibling. You would all bond together to kick the outsider out.   

Different points of view are exactly what makes the world a great place to be in.  If you only ever heard you own point of view, you could never learn to have understanding or compassion for another’s plight.

 Family is most important – watch out for each other and stay together. This bond must be nurtured, and engaged by each member to stand the test of time.  For many families, the passing of either parent or both, can signal the end of the cohesion of the family unit. 

We learned, that when a generation passes, its up to us to move into position and keep the family together.  It now being our turn to tend and cultivate the family unit. Remember, a family was never meant to only be filled with people who agree.  If you have a family like this great!  However, that is not what family is really for.  Listen, love, accept and value each member of the family for who they are and what they bring to the family.  Or what can the family bring to them? May love and respect always keep the family together.  

What we lost in a generation was staying close to our cousins.  Note to self: It’s important to keep cousins seeing each other throughout their lives as much as possible.  

LOVE doesn’t have an opinion. 

Whatever your family unit was, what are the “gifts” that your family has given you?  Yes, there will be “gifts” that you didn’t necessarily want and others that are woven into the fabric of your family.