Between Christmas, visits with the folks, and a trip to Honduras with just about everyone on my mother’s side of the family within one generation of me, I spent a lot of time with my family the last couple of months. First time I’ve been around most of them in two years. They are the coolest people I know. Now that could be because I’ve been around them all my life and I’ve just gotten used to them, but I don’t think so. I really believe that I just hit the jackpot and happened to fall into the deep end of the gene pool. My family is as diverse, talented, intelligent, and downright interesting a clan as you could ever expect to meet. As a bonus, the cousins in my generation are marrying age, and many of them are dating or getting married to entertaining, fun people who mesh perfectly with the rest of us. There’s no other group with whom I’d rather spend my time, and the fam was the highlight of my trip.
Okay, enough sappy gushing; let me get to my sappy point. My family gets along famously. There are no warring factions or people on the outs or members who, through withdrawal or due to distance, have achieved long lost status. Nobody bickers or does anything backhanded. It’s all love, respect, support. In this, I’m lucky.
Some of you reading this may not be so lucky. There may be issues, real or imagined, that keep your family members apart. It is to you that I say the following: take the first step. Rift in your family? Someone with whom you don’t see eye to eye? Hate the person your family member married? Old grudge? Skeletons in the closet? Long distance hindering communication? So what? Let the healing begin, people! Make the effort to reach out. Patch up an old misunderstanding. Send a thoughtful gift to the niece you never met. Write a newsy catch up letter to a lonely uncle. Forgive a debt. Forgive a slight. Hash out your differences with a sibling. Basically, recognize the fact that blood is thicker than water, that you are stuck with your relatives, and that you may as well enjoy their company. Who knows what redeeming qualities you may discover or rediscover? Naive advice? Perhaps. But hey, they’re family. Give it a try. Okay, preaching over, soapbox kicked aside.
