Family versus Single...When should we be Grateful?

Hmmmmm….what to write….what to write?  I have to talked to other bloggers and we all face the same thing…”writers block”!  We love to write and when it comes easily, it is as if your fingers cannot skip fast enough across the key board.  Other days…well there are just no words in your head.

Recently I had an amazing family reunion, birthday party(s), and just plain great family get together.  I lost track of how many people there were over the course of the weekend but there were children, grandchildren, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, cousins 3 X removed, and friends.  We laughed, some of us cried (that might be me) and we enjoyed ourselves to the outmost. 

Leading up to the event, I cooked and I planned.  During the event, I cooked (because I love to), we swam, we fed the seals, and at some point, I actually ended up on my butt with a busted sandal and surrounded by a group of men offering assistance (every woman’s dream, especially when the fireman reached his hand through the crowd to offer his assistance).  The problem was; I could not stop laughing at the situation and I was difficult to help.  My oh my…my family and friends have  a story to take home J.

But… as they all left for their homes one by one, I realized that something might be a little bit true.  I missed them.  I live by myself in a beautiful city with an amazing job.  I would be hard pressed to replicate that anywhere.  However, although I am usually content with my life, having my family and friends around me for those days was amazing. 

 

I returned to work and just concentrated on the mundane.  I worked extra-long hours and after a couple of days, I could think.  It is true; I might have been a wee bit tired.  The planning, the catch-ups, and suddenly… the silence.

As I ponder what to write, I think of all of us single people in the world.  So often, we are content with where we are in the world and in our life.  We get to get out of bed when we want on the weekends.  We do not have to cook dinner if we do not want to.  We do not have to fight over what to watch on TV.  However, as I just chatted with a friend from my local coffee shop, told him of my last weekend, and complained about being tired, he said; “ I don’t have a single relative alive in the world, so I don’t have to worry about that.”

I caught my breath when I realized how lucky I was to experience a tired and even let down feeling.  It was because I had something to experience.  We can so easily forget that not everyone has what we have.  It might not be a Norman Rockwell painting or a "Leave it to Beaver Life", but it is our life.

This is our family and friends, with all the skeletons in the closet, with all of our crises, and of course with all of our imperfections.  But, they belong to us.  We have people in our lives that make our lives richer, give us stories (perhaps landing on our butt), and bring colour to our lives.

 

May we realize how lucky we are and may we reach out to others that do not have these experiences in their lives.