"Family"

I have written, on a prior occasion, about family!

Family is incredibly important and integral in a person's growth and development and in their moral make-up. Family can be the safety net over which we traverse our scariest and most unstable feats. Family can be the hand we hold when hiking new destinies. Family can be uplifting and grounding; supportive and stabilizing; persistent and persuasive; gathering and global.

Family, however, need not be related by some blood line, heirarchy, or destiny. Family can be as close as your best friend ~ the person who will sit with you and listen to your woes, encourage your dreams, or simply quietly sit. Family, as you age, becomes those you CHOOSE to be family. Your relatives will always be your relatives. Hopefully, your bond with them is strong and steadfast and solid. If it is not, create your own family.

I wish you relatives far and wide; from every corner of this beautiful round earth. I wish you folks who will stand beside you, behind you, in front of you, and have the courage to tell you to go sit down when necessary. I have truly been blessed with a plethora of people, who I am no more related to than Mickey Mouse, who have been family when mine were absent. Susie, Lenny, Tana, Harold, and a myriad of ladies and gents who have held me together when troubles and turmoil have threatened to tear me asunder. I could not ask for better, more incredible 'relatives' than these folks. Thank you for your care, your concern, your love, your kindness. It does not go unnoticed!