Personal Meditation no. 178

“Your beliefs are your actions. What you say is just what you think.”

Embrace the Within.

I can abide a city for about twenty-four hours. No more than that. The novelty of food variety and shop variety wears off after that. So, it is wonderful that we are in the city for less than a day this year to celebrate the help we were given eight years ago when Python was born prematurely.

Today, we will walk again for the memory of those days when we didn’t know what we were going to do, where we were going to stay, and who we were going to talk with all this about. And then there was the Ronald McDonald House. And that is why we and others walk each year. Because when we needed a place, they were there. And they don’t just evaporate from your life after the fact. They stay around. They are family and you will do anything to help your family.

I think a lot of us get tormented by family. We get tormented by the idea that folks that are on a genealogy list or share a home or somehow link in your lineage are your family. BUT family isn’t genetics or bloodlines or trees, family is a relationship you have with other folks. A relationship that means you would sacrifice your comfort, your safety, your future for the preservation of theirs. And I think a lot of what we see as family falls short of that reality.

In my two decades of government teaching, I have heard stories of parents waiting for kids to turn 18 so they can put them out of the house. I don’t know how that is family. I have heard stories of parents abusing their children and destroying them physically and emotionally. I don’t know how that is family. I have heard stories of relatives spreading rumors and lies about relatives. I don’t know how that is family. And there are countless more inhuman acts I have heard and seen that are beyond how animals treat their young as examples of family. That is not family.

Family is a relationship. Family is accepting. Family is compassion. Family is understanding. When we think about the infinite compassion that is open to us, when we think about the infinite love that we are capable of showing, when we think about the perfectly imperfect relationships we could create, we understand what family truly is. It’s reaching out to our brothers and sisters. It’s making sure we are alright and they are alright. It’s sharing smiles and happiness as well as tears and sorrows. It’s a state of hope in a world that definitely needs hope.

When we are born into families that are not those things, then we need to find our own family that are those things. And there are still plenty of good folks, good families, good situations out there. We only need to look and we will find them.

So, cherish your family today. The one that looks out for you even when you don’t deserve it. The one that is always willing to help without asking. The one that you feel the same about. Those are the relationships that you need. And if you don’t have those relationships, then I hope you find them soon. Those are the things that make the messiness and complications of life easier and not more difficult. That is what family is for. And that is why we walk.

Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #EmbracetheWithin