Family Is Everything

As we have often heard, people come and they go but family is forever.  Although no one has a perfect family when it comes down to it family are the people who usually stick by us, defend us and listen to our joys and sorrows.  I think it wise that we cultivate family whenever possible and that we forgive each other so that we can show up for one another in a way that is purely about love.  At every turn family is usually all we have and so it is important to tend to those family members who are wiling to be a part of the unit of support and love.

Let's look at some of the elements of family and some of the key elements of connecting or reconnecting with family:

1. Forgiveness and Family: 
One of the things that drives us away from our family is our lack of forgiveness.  Although we believe that forgiving others is about them it's really more about us.  Holding on to old situations and old stories holds us back while forgiveness actually propels us forward.  When we forgive others we end up lifting the burdens of resentment and anger.  When we lift that burden we can then have a loving relationship with the people who we understand are not perfect and who we know have done what they knew best to do with the tools they had.

2.  Sending Light to Family: 
Even when we choose to be physically astranged from our family members we can still have a connection that is spiritual and one that is compassionate by sending them light and love each day.  We can do this with a picture of them or we can close our eyes and visualize their person while sending them light.  It may be that we don't always feel emotionally and at times physically safe around someone in our family so that we take a break from them in service to our highest good.  We don't often understand that we can love our family from a distance when we genuinely know our limitations.

3. Understanding Family: 
Understanding is different from forgiveness because it is our understanding of various family members and who they are versus who we wish they would be that helps us to stay tuned in to them.  Understanding asks us to accept family as they are with all of their flaws, their imperfections.  I think that there are times when we are more understanding of our friends and even of strangers than our own family.  When we think about the importance of family we must be more compassionate towards them and believe that by being more understanding that we can have a much more fruitful connection with each of them.

4.  Lighten Up with Family: 
We take things so seriously at times that we fail to see the humor and just lighten up and not take things so personally.  Lightning up means that we can make a joke of things and move on and that every single gesture not be something we need to dissect or make something bigger that doesn't need to be.  When we agree to lighten up we ask that we just let some things roll off of us that are simply not so imperative.  We tend to put a little too much importance on what a family member says or does when in fact it is our intimate connection to them that seems to make what they do so serious when we in fact are simply making it too serious.  Light hearts create light minds.  Light heartedness is akin to seeing the humor in life.  There will be so many times when a family member says something we don't like that we cannot possibly react to every single situation every single time. At one time or another we have all been asked to "lighten up" and we should heed that advice sometimes, knowing fully that taking things personally is about our own self-worthiness and not so much the person who is saying it.

Learning to love others for who they are and not taking things so seriously are key to having a good family dynamic.  Forgiveness is important because as long as we hold those grudges, nothing is going to happen.  After all is said and done, family is family.