What a lovely one. Loving Your Family and this extends beyond biological family - it's the family you create from a bond that is formed. I've always had an extended family beyond my own. If someone said "invite your family" my guest list would be diverse.
There are four I want to honour that are SO much like my family, family - like sisters and a brothers to me - Meghan Innes +family, Taya Hawes-Puiu +family, Shaun Lawless +Maria (my best BFF) and John aka JJK +my Will+Grace. There are many more deeply routed amazing friends that I cherish, my history with these four is untouchable and unconditional - like family. We have been through SO MUCH together, if you knew you'd understand the distinction in my heart.
I'm lucky and I love my biological family dearly and unconditionally.
This picture is my older sister and my younger brother - I'm the middle child. About 1 year apart in age.
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| Centering Thought for Today: "Today I commit to loving my family unconditionally." |
My family is a little larger than this now... my mom and two half-sisters and my dad and step-mom. My darling nephew's & niece. My sister's girlfriend. My loving grama's (on my dad's side living with me (german) - on my mom's side (italian/russian) passed away a few years ago) ... on my mom's side there are five cousins (two we've never met), two uncles & an aunt. Also intrigued by how there can be people you're related to and you've never met or rarely see.
Having becoming estranged for a few years from part my family in my late teens and then later just due to distance living in Toronto for six years -- I learnt to build family around me. I've been part of A LOT of different families christmas festivities and I've witness A LOT of what family is ... and really family is just that - family. The good, the bad, the ugly. And that's what I love about it.
My best friends that I consider family are because we've gotten to that place of true unconditional love and it was born ofter out of the bad and ugly times... getting us way past just the good times. These loving individuals are my family too. And I'm a better loving person for knowing them.
It reminds me now of the buddhist teachings that were brought into my life earlier this year ... the guidance always to go deeper into anger, resentment, suffering ... go deeper, to get to this pure place of love. To open your heart further is to go deeper. I believe we do this with family... perhaps a little unknowingly and if we could trust doing this more or honour when we find someone willing to "go there" with us. Then we have that unconditional bond of 'family.'
Yet nothing has my love more than my biological family. They are the souls that chose to come to this earth together. In today's meditation I honour them, my extended family and myself - this is a gift.
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| "The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of the same family grow up under the same roof." —Richard Bach |
Welcome to Day 19 - Loving Your Family
In today's meditation, we will explore the value of family relationships, and how someone can be considered family without being biologically related. Known as the Mother of Family Therapy, psychotherapist Virginia Satir wrote, "Feelings of worth flourish in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible—the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family."
We can live our dharma, our true purpose in life, by practicing those attributes in all of our relationships: tolerance, clear and loving communication, and creating an atmosphere of love wherever we go. Here, in this family of meditation enthusiasts, that nourishing atmosphere exists. You have found the supportive, safe haven called family.
In today's meditation, we will explore the value of family relationships, and how someone can be considered family without being biologically related. Known as the Mother of Family Therapy, psychotherapist Virginia Satir wrote, "Feelings of worth flourish in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible—the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family."
We can live our dharma, our true purpose in life, by practicing those attributes in all of our relationships: tolerance, clear and loving communication, and creating an atmosphere of love wherever we go. Here, in this family of meditation enthusiasts, that nourishing atmosphere exists. You have found the supportive, safe haven called family.
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