I Long to see my Family Reunited

My dear mother spent her lifetime building relationships and cementing the bonds among our immediate family members. She extended these efforts to bring the family closer to our entire nuclear family unto generations deep and wide. Every major family event was shared by smaller groups or larger family group gatherings. Emotional and physical bonds strengthened the family due to this tribal life style. Reunions were a life style rather than a special event. Weddings, births and deaths were various types of life celebrations that involved the extended nuclear family.

If someone in the family was having a baby, my parents, my siblings and I went out of our way to notify every relative we could remember. We made checklists to make sure we wouldn't miss any one then we took turns making the phone calls or sending the cards and letters. It was an all encompassing family experience that embedded a sharing desire deep within me.

I long for that today because with my parents and grand-parents, it has virtually gone to the spirit world with them. I want to encourage my family to come together again so our children and grand children will have those family ties and strong bonds that molded us into the tribal culture we were in those days.

Our spiritual and social growth as a family gave us the strengths in moral character to become loving people in society as a whole. We cared so we contributed to life around us in our communities. We gave of our time, our love, our energy and our money. We taught our neighbors to care about one another. It was/is a powerful life force that motivated me to have joy, to feel love, to process grief and pain and to heal over insurmountable odds. I am on a quest to return to that place in the heart, for my family and my world.

Once a month, I will post an update on our progress uniting as a family. Meet me here in April when spring is in full swing and see what family ties are strengthened, which family connections are made new and how many family events we have planned. This will be an exciting adventure. I'll call this monthly feature, Suzanne's Desire to Unite Her Family. That is my mother and her dying wish was that our family would get close again and stay together like when she was a young mother. This is for you Mom. I love you.

The Midnight Writer