the joy in the connection

“i sustain  myself with the love of family” – maya angelou

and sometimes family doesn’t have to be from blood.  family are people in your lives who you feel connected to, people who care about you, think about you, love you.  people who have crap in their lives and who are willing to open up and share their crap with you…these people are family.

at some point in time brian and i didn’t know each other -our bloods hadn’t mingled yet. he was from a loud, boisterous irish catholic family and i from a quiet, chinese family. there was no way these two families were going to mix and get along. but love conquered. and despite our outward differences, our souls met, and we wanted to be together.

we’ve been together for 40 years now, and we are family. but it’s been the good and the bad that have brought us even closer together. it’s the blissful memories along with all the struggles that have created our lives together.

and now that i think about it, it’s the hard times, the times that were dark and lonely, the times when our hearts were broken, where we heard each other, found each other’s cores, that cemented our bond even further. it’s that strong magnet that grew over those years of both bliss and sorrow that is now pulling our grown children back into our home during the holidays. and how i so find my heart beating with such force as i relish these precious moments.  i am sustained and filled with immense gratitude.

when we open up and share, give as the heart so wishes, not in judgement or out of guilt, but from a place of pure love and understanding, we realize that we’re all related, not in blood, but in spirit.  we’re all connected, we’re all family,