Summer highlights!

What a wonderful summer holiday! A surprise birthday present! My family was around me, I got to hug grandchildren and visit with grownups. We began to build our retreat at the lake. We had a baptism! And a family reunion/birthday party for my dad!

Let's begin with the best birthday ever! My birthday falls in the middle of July and usually everyone is off doing their own thing. I usually have a few friends over to celebrate and John orders a cake for the celebration. This year began like most others, although our daughter and son-in-law and grandbaby Jordan were with us to celebrate. We had a plan to have a BBQ out at the lake and invite the supper club friends. Then it began to rain again. John said that the people we had invited may not come, preparing me for a let down. I didn't care, as at least one of the grandchildren was there to hug me. And we were beginning to get along just fine. I had so much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to - the other half of the family was coming in from Montreal next week!

I've always been thankful for family and when my immediate family can't be around, I gather others in. My husband and I belong to a supper club; we befriend other families; we try to get involved with our co-workers; we belong to clubs. Paul Pearsall wrote The Power of the Family in an effort to show people how important the family is. He states that through his research, he found what he knew to be true on a personal level - the power of "family" can save your life. I know that when I am feeling down, I only need to experience the closeness of family and I feel better. That said, we also need to have the right attitude about family. If we believe we are alone in this world, we won't experience the healing of family.

The entire cycle of life is contained, experienced and explained within the family, and those persons who are able to stay family throughout their lives, to call one another, to remember one another, to gather at emergencies and remember the family at times of crises, and to extend their sense of family to their everyday life, were the healthiest and happiest persons I ever saw. Being family seemed to be causing psychological and physical hardiness, not pathology. It was not independence, but family dependence and the mutual personal responsibility viewpoint throughout life, that was the ultimate measure of wellness.

I have read and re-read this book a few times since I first came across it probably 15 years ago, in order to continue to confirm and affirm the motivation for becoming and staying family.

Back to the birthday party - it was getting close to 7:00pm and I was gathering those around that had arrived and getting ready to serve supper. John and friends were encouraging me to just sit and relax for a few minutes, when a strange vehicle pulled up. Out comes the other half of the family - well, you could have knocked me over with a feather! I didn't get it at first! Then it dawned - they wanted to surprise me on my birthday by showing up a week earlier than planned. What a present - the best birthday present ever - to have the whole family there for supper! And on my birthday!