Skip to main content

31 Days of Five-Minute Writes: Day 2 - Family for Five Minute Friday


Five Minute Friday is a writing event that has writers spending five minutes writing on the same topic and then sharing them at http://katemotaung.com/five-minute-friday/. This week's word is Family.

This is my family, many years ago on Easter Sunday. So much about this epitomizes family to me. Here we are all dressed up in new clothes made by my mother, me and my sister dressed alike as we did for so long. Matter of fact, we still often meet up for dinner dressed alike because our mother often buys us matching items for Christmas. This photo was taken at my maternal grandmother's house, where we gathered every Sunday after church. After time, moves across the country, and increasing age, we stopped this tradition and I still miss it to this day. There was something about touching base with everyone once a week that was so wonderful. I still have lunch every Sunday with my parents and my sister but it just isn't the same as the extended family being together - kids in the living room at the kids' table, adults sitting around the table long after the meal was finished, catching up on life.
This is the family I chose - my Tribe. We come from different cities and different backgrounds but for a time, we all lived in the same city and it was glorious. Friday night happy hours would start at 5pm and end with pancakes at Village Inn at 2am. Birthdays were celebrated in grand style, also into the wee hours. This family stood around me as I sobbed in my backyard and wondered out loud why my husband left. Many have moved away and others have experienced life changes that have changed the pace of their lives but when we gathered for a wedding in Maine, the evening we spent together was like those we so often found ourselves spending at home and it was magical.

I also now have a church family that fills so many voids in my life. They are my spiritual family, who in the last few years has brought so much comfort, joy, and fellowship into my everyday being. I don't know where I would be without them.

Family can mean so many things and can be found in so many places. It's what tells us who we are, marks, where we have been, and leads us to who we want to be. It is such a precious gift, no matter whether it is the family you were born into, or you created, or you joined. Family is everything.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Marcy Nell HansonOctober 3, 2015 at 11:55 AM

    I love this. Yes, family comes in so many shapes, sizes and for so many reasons. Lovely post and pictures!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Five Minute Friday: Roots

Lisa-Jo Baker (lisajobaker.com) hosts a weekly event on her blog called "Five Minute Friday". The rules are 1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking. 2. Link back here and invite others to join in. 3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community.. So here's my first try at this. Today's topic was Roots. Roots – I think about my grandparents who lived on a farm until my grandfather’s diabetes worsened and they moved to a town with a hospital nearby. My father still says he wished he could have kept that farm. I think of my grandmother who was a widow for 20 years. Every year she would stand over my PaPa’s grave, wishing she was with him. I think of my parents, a product of those grandparents, how hard my father worked to put 2 girls through
10 comments
Read more

Five Minute Friday: Time

Five Minute Friday is a writing event that has writers spending five minutes writing on the same topic and then sharing them at http://katemotaung.com/five-minute-friday/ . This week's word is Time. Sometimes time feels like this, like we are in it. Standing inside it, watching life pass by. It is so easy to get stuck in a time - in our pain, in our hurt. We hear the ache tick away in our head like a giant clock. Time, instead, is a gift. More time with family, more time to accomplish goals, more time to see the world. When you are hurting, it seems like time takes forever. One day turns into another day, turns into another day. When we hate a job, the five days of time that make up a work week seem to go on forever. But those five days are also a gift. Because these days, a job is not a guarantee. I want to see time as gift, not as a chore. I want to be on the other side of it, wishing there was more of it. Making the most of every hour, minute, and second instead of
6 comments
Read more

Five Minute Friday: Dwell

Five Minute Friday is a writing event that has writers spending five minutes writing on the same topic and then sharing them at http://katemotaung.com/five-minute-friday/ . This week's word is Dwell. I have thought about this word a lot - where should I dwell. After my divorce, I had a big decision to make - did I buy X's half of the house and continue to dwell where I had for the past 15 years or did I sell and move to a new dwelling. After crunching numbers and weighing my options, I decide to stay in the house we had bought together. Because, when it came right down to it, I loved my house. I felt safe there. I try not to dwell on the sadness that happened in this place but instead try to dwell on making it my own. I have painted rooms in colors X would have never agreed upon, I have bought artwork that he would never have hung. I want to dwell in a place that reflects who I am. When the yard is full of weeds and the basement full of water, I long to dwell in
6 comments
Read more