Family

There are many ways to define family. Family consists of the people who support and love you and the people you can confide in and trust.   

Being a parent has been the most rewarding and challenging experience of my life.  Being a Mom and wanting to do what was right for everyone, including myself, required more of me than anything I have done before or since. 

As parents, we set limits with consequences for our children. It is our job to teach them about the world's ways, starting with people around them. I tried to find the balance between saying yes as much as possible and teaching my children the responsibilities that accompany the freedoms that they were pushing for.  Sometimes I got it right, and sometimes I didn't, but I did the best I could at the time.

I found that rather than thinking in fragments, to step back and look at the situation. Ask what is good for all involved. The part that was the most challenging was to remember to include myself as part of the whole. Looking back,  this was more easily done when I came to the table from a clean place, which means not dragging with me old beliefs, unresolved issues of my past, my childhood, or the stresses of the day. Doing so helped me not show up in a more balanced, grounded, couscous way. 

So when you feel frustrated, disconnected, or like the yelling parent, think from the whole instead of the parts. Do your own work and look for ways that unite your Family in love.

Family 

Does not need to be perfect

last names may or may not match

no two people are the same

Familiar lessons 

reflections of self 

impartial eyes   

Each individual is its strength

united in heart and diversity

with a oneness of purpose

Step back, take a look

work at it consciously

be wholly within it

Not fragmented parts

with love

grow, learn and enjoy