The June long weekend was a special treat this year as I was able to have an extended weekend away with family. It was so great to have time to catch up in person. We talked, we joked, we laughed, we played cards, we had healthy rivalries about which footy team would win and of course we ate way too much! Family time is so important and it happens less and less as time goes on due to conflicting schedules, distance and other commitments. All the more reason to treasure the moments we can be together.

Family is likely one of the most powerful forces in the entire world. And there are things about it that make it that way. Though for each of us, family is different; it is still home, it is a place to belong and it is that place where we fit in perfectly.

Family is knowing that no one could ever take your place. It is that spot where you are completely irreplaceable. It is that sweet place where you belong in all of your heart and personality and spunk; where you get to be unashamedly yourself every single day.

It is where you are loved and known. You are seen exactly as you are with your greatness and with your darkness. And no matter what, you’re never given up on, never pushed away, never forgotten, never denied.

Family is that look between a husband and wife, a glance between a brother and sister, a wink between a dad and a son. It is silly conversations and jokes that don’t make sense and laughter that goes into the night. It is family vacations and conversations with hard questions. It is learning from one another and trying new things and getting up every single day to love again. It is wonder and it is thanks and it is beautiful.

We don’t choose our family but we do get to choose to open our hearts wide to receive from them and to love them freely and unconditionally.

What makes family a powerful force isn’t that we share last names or that we come around the same dinner table every night. What makes families powerful is that in an age of so many choices, we keep choosing each other.

Reflection retrieved and adapted from https://rolphoto.ca/blog/the-importance-of-family

 I am so grateful to have had this precious weekend with my family and of course, we all know who the star of the weekend was! Yes…that’s you, Hudson!