Families. Love them or hate them they are the glue holding us together. But perhaps the definition of family is worth looking at.
Today I went to see my friend Jan as she packed up her home. She is getting ready to move closer to her family. Life has pulled her across to a new location and she will have more time with them. But less with the people who are this side of the country. It got me thinking about our friendship. And how friends become part of our family too. Then they move further away as life drifts us into new opportunities. Yet the glue that holds us together remains. I like to think of my family in this way. Who am I glued to?
I was delighted to meet a friend recently who I hadn’t seen face to face for eleven years. The glue was still there. She and her husband became part of my family a long time ago. I think about them often and remember them in my prayers. In the same way that Jan will also be thought of often even if I can’t pop over to see her as often as I do now. That’s the beauty of family. It doesn’t have to be only blood and married in. My family is very much a mixture of blood, marriage, friends and loved ones in Spirit. I take my lead from the Spirit World. In the Afterlife we are all one family. There is no distinction about how I am related to anyone else.
I am part of the eternal family. The glue that holds us together is love. Because that is the enduring energy of connection.
Today I found that a reassuring thought. Over the past week I’ve been arranging to meet up with some of the people I consider to be my Earth family. It will be lovely to catch up and find out face to face how they are doing. Because sometimes a phone call or message chat isn’t quite the same. And I will see if the glue of love is still present in our relationship. I say that because sometimes it seems that a family member is ready for a new family. Like a marriage where a son or daughter is gained or lost friendships come to a natural end. Of a sort. That person will remain in my family thoughts. They will be someone I think fondly of but they may now be ready to relate to me in a different way.
Love has many different aspects. Families are the same. I feel that I have learned so much in my human journey through the different kinds of love I’ve shared. The times when the glue has been so strong the bond is unbreakable. Those connections when the glue has worn away and we have gone in different directions. Or those relationships where the glue has to be reapplied time and again. Even those wonderful ones where the glue is very flexible and stretchy. When I can share the love whether the other person is near or far. Most wonderful of all, to realise that the glue crosses time and space. I am connected through love to the Afterlife and my family forever.
I am surrounded by loving family. Even in the moments when I feel most alone there is glue linking me to the other people in my life. On top of the moors today that thought blew me away.
Day 527 of my blogging challenge