There’s nothing like family.

Happy New Year!

In my first blog posting I said that I may write from the Philippines.  I chose not to.  I decided to reflect on things that were and are happening in my life and chose to save my thoughts for another day.  I was on holiday and enjoyed that holiday.  Was is it exhausting?  Yes, and I wouldn’t trade a minute of it.  I have a bunch of new ideas for this blog as a result of our time away from Canada.  I hope that I can remember them so that I can document what it is I have been thinking about.

Thanks, Dawn, for following this blog and thank you, Ean for your comments.  At least there are two people that read what I have written.  That’s kind of cool!  I am going to try and double my readership to four.  Won’t that be something?

Now, where was I going with this?  Oh, yeah.  I remember.  *Smile*

That’s all I have to say.  Thank you for reading!

Seriously though, I say again, “There’s nothing like family.”  When you live some of the places I’ve lived, and most times by myself, I can certainly tell you that I value my family highly.  The person that I’ve learned a lot about family from has been my wife.  She comes from a different culture than mine and a large family.  We have just returned from visiting her family.  I’ll just say that she has 8 brothers and sisters, all of whom are still alive as well as her mother.

Whether it be the pressures of life or other issues that are real or imagined we (I can replace we with “I” but, for the sake of where I’m going with this I’m going to allow “we” to suffice.) often allow things to get in the way of our relationships and thus the decay begins.  Decay that we can neither afford or allow.  The family unit is under pressure all over the world.  I’ve seen it.  I find it rather amazing that the same pressures the family unit faces in Canada are the same pressures the family unit faces elsewhere in the world sometimes to a horrifying degree.  The good news is most all of us can do something about ensuring the outcome is better instead of worse.

My immediate family has lost two people within the past decade: My oldest sister and my younger brother.  Two siblings are left, me and my little sister.  Our lives have been changed forever by the loss of our siblings.  I believe that my relationship with my remaining sibling is one of the most important relationships in my life.  My remaining sister and for that matter, my parents, though they divorced long ago and moved on to live differently in different places, are very important to me.  Is that weird?  No more weird than being a child of two races.  That would be me in case you were wondering.

Within this past year my sister and I have taken to spending time with another family member.  Our niece.  The child of our departed brother.  Getting to know her has been a wonderful adventure.  She needs family just like everyone else that I have ever met.

My sister and I both plan on outliving our parents!  Does that mean I’ll stop doing some of the crazy fun things that I like doing?  Nah!  It means I’ll be more careful doing what few crazy fun things that I like doing.  It means I’ll think about the relationships with my family members and remember why it is that I do what it is I do in the first place.

I have chosen not to post pictures with this blog post because I want you, the reader, to think about family and whom or what that may mean to you.  It’s not important what my family looks like.  It is important that I love them.  So I do.

Is my family perfect?  Not even close!  My family has had it’s issues and problems.  I have had my issues and problems with my family.  The important thing is that these people, as well as my wife’s family, are still my family.  I am committed to my family and spending time with my family is high priority.  I wasn’t always so interested in my family and I have paid the price for that.  Once I realized the best thing to do was spend time with my family in spite of our differences my life changed significantly for the better.  Funny how that happens!