The Familiarity of Family

Labor Day Weekend has become one of my family's biggest get-together weekends. It wasn't always that way. Occasionally my dad would make one of his famous grilled bbq beef thingies (yes, that's the official name) but it wasn't every year.

All that changed in 2006. That's the year we lost dad and Jeff & Carolyn began coming up for the weekend. It still kind of weirds me out that Jeff , who is the age of my oldest sibling, could also be my dad's closest friend. Okay, so that was a sidebar. Anyway, we began that year getting together in honor of my dad and it seems that each year is more dear to my heart than the year before.

This year was no exception. I enjoyed each day but it was Sunday night as we played Taboo for hours that I looked around the table so grateful for family. Many of the clues started with "oh, this happened that time we..." Each time we got the answer. The heck with all the words we couldn't say, we had something better--history. There is a bond between us that few others can really penetrate. It comes from time spent together over the years. Jeff is one of those few that was able to make it from the outside in. This is no small feat given his 6' 8" frame!

It's all about familiarity. That's not to say we haven't developed deep friendships outside of the family because we definitely have. But in this circle of people we share something different and it's not about bloodline. Strangely enough as I thought about family, it dawned on me that the strongest chords holding us together aren't made of the good times. Sure, we've had plenty of those but it's the times of heartbreak that have tested the strength of our family ties.

I can't even believe I'm about to type this but I have fond memories and feelings of those days leading up to dad's funeral. All of us moved through the unbelievably thick fog together, not really knowing where we were going or how we were going to hold up but knowing whatever came at us, we'd handle it together. We didn't have to say a lot of words--most frequently it was just a look we all understood because of familiarity. We made it together because we're family.

Not that we're a perfect group. There is no such thing. But in spite of all our faults and flounderings over the years, we truly enjoy our time together. We drive each other crazy while at the same time love each other like mad.

I wouldn't trade it for anything. And with that I close this post because the overwhelming emotion of it is causing my eyes to brim with tears, making it incredibly difficult to see my screen.