The other day, someone on fb asked "what are you passionate about?" and without hesitation, I said "being madly in love with people and places." Ok, not exactly, but that was the boiled down intention.
So often and recently, I'm humbled by how many people I get to love, how many kids who look up to me are in my life, how many friends I can honestly consider close. It's overwhelming really, how much time I get to spend with people I truly adore.
I'm reminded of an entry I've worked on for awhile but I couldn't articulate the message. It was about the ways in which we live with, care for, and choose our families. I made distinctions I didn't really want to make at all, so I abandoned that piece and set off to find some new inspiration whenever, and wherever, that inspiration struck me.
It turns out, I found it right here in the course of regular life. We choose to be family. Let me say it again, because it's true: everyday, and with all those people we live for and love, sometimes blissfully, sometimes tragically - we choose to be family.
It doesn't seem like that makes sense since none of us get to choose our moms and dads. We sometimes get saddled with brothers and sisters, or aunts and uncles we certainly didn't ask for. And yet, it remains true. Family is a choice.
We choose to spend time sitting around a table shucking oysters and laughing with brothers and sisters. We choose gathering on holidays instead of solitude. We choose graduation parties on a moments' notice, because a wonderful woman graduated from nursing school. We choose nail salons on hard anniversaries. We choose adventures in karaoke instead of protecting our pride. We choose to love.
Sometimes the family you were thrust into isn't the family you choose at all. My family is loud, crazy, and boisterous --- and loving, fun and close --- but even sometimes I choose to make more room for the other family I am so lucky to have. Sometimes the family you choose is an obligation, a chore, or a responsibility, but even those things are born out of knowing that some kind of love drives us. Why? Because, we choose love.
I have so many people who get to be family - my mama and The Bald Eagle, my dad, senior, jdogg, MandolinMan, Swati and Nani of course. But there so many more than I can barely keep track. My oldest friend, my UnlikelyFriend, Teach and PAG3, trespagjr, little TF who couldn't possibly be more important to me if he tried, Roomie, kittykat. Family sometimes falls away, like TxB or Pepper. And sometimes you know in your heart you've already met someone to add. You don't just make him family; he earns it. Nevertheless, your heart has already chosen.
If anything has struck me over the last several months, it is that there is no end to how many people can be in our families. There's no rank order to categorize or prioritize who we love "the most." A person's capacity to love is only limited by her willingness to open her heart, and for all the fear that may bring, the rewards returned are exponential.
So often and recently, I'm humbled by how many people I get to love, how many kids who look up to me are in my life, how many friends I can honestly consider close. It's overwhelming really, how much time I get to spend with people I truly adore.
I'm reminded of an entry I've worked on for awhile but I couldn't articulate the message. It was about the ways in which we live with, care for, and choose our families. I made distinctions I didn't really want to make at all, so I abandoned that piece and set off to find some new inspiration whenever, and wherever, that inspiration struck me.
It turns out, I found it right here in the course of regular life. We choose to be family. Let me say it again, because it's true: everyday, and with all those people we live for and love, sometimes blissfully, sometimes tragically - we choose to be family.
It doesn't seem like that makes sense since none of us get to choose our moms and dads. We sometimes get saddled with brothers and sisters, or aunts and uncles we certainly didn't ask for. And yet, it remains true. Family is a choice.
We choose to spend time sitting around a table shucking oysters and laughing with brothers and sisters. We choose gathering on holidays instead of solitude. We choose graduation parties on a moments' notice, because a wonderful woman graduated from nursing school. We choose nail salons on hard anniversaries. We choose adventures in karaoke instead of protecting our pride. We choose to love.
Sometimes the family you were thrust into isn't the family you choose at all. My family is loud, crazy, and boisterous --- and loving, fun and close --- but even sometimes I choose to make more room for the other family I am so lucky to have. Sometimes the family you choose is an obligation, a chore, or a responsibility, but even those things are born out of knowing that some kind of love drives us. Why? Because, we choose love.
I have so many people who get to be family - my mama and The Bald Eagle, my dad, senior, jdogg, MandolinMan, Swati and Nani of course. But there so many more than I can barely keep track. My oldest friend, my UnlikelyFriend, Teach and PAG3, trespagjr, little TF who couldn't possibly be more important to me if he tried, Roomie, kittykat. Family sometimes falls away, like TxB or Pepper. And sometimes you know in your heart you've already met someone to add. You don't just make him family; he earns it. Nevertheless, your heart has already chosen.
If anything has struck me over the last several months, it is that there is no end to how many people can be in our families. There's no rank order to categorize or prioritize who we love "the most." A person's capacity to love is only limited by her willingness to open her heart, and for all the fear that may bring, the rewards returned are exponential.
