The Tie that Binds

And while journaling and meditating on my day, I watched as the birds began their morning descent on the bird feeder outside my kitchen window—the sparrows were sparring for prime real estate at the feeder. The bright red cardinal was happily picking up dropped seeds from the ground.  Just then, the sun cut through the trees with its blazing pink orange rays and cast an amazing hue through my window and across the table into the pages of my journal.  This moment was absolutely perfect and glorious.

Soon my thoughts were interrupted by the extra humans in my house.  My family is here from Nebraska—parents, niece, nephew and my brother. My dad joined me for coffee and asked questions about what I do.  He can’t remember the name of my company or what I do for the company.  Others began to awaken and assemble at the kitchen table as I was wrapping up my writing and preparing to get ready for work.  I looked at the group assembled and was struck by how interesting our family is—we have very little in common and yet we have a common history.  We see the world through completely different lenses. We tolerate one another.  We love each other—mostly.  I was also struck by the critical importance of the family we choose.

I have friends who I feel such a deep connection with—they are my soul family; we may not be connected by biology but we are connected by something so much more substantive.  They show up for me and for those I love.  A great example of this is my friend, Aisha.  She offered to come over and do my niece’s hair so that my mom could take a break from the weekly hair routine.  Gayle is such a beautiful little girl and it was fun for her to have Aisha make her hair pretty in a way that grandma didn’t know how to do.  I cannot express the level of gratitude.  It was an amazing gift of time and talent.

This week as you go out into the world, look around you at the relationships that truly sustain you, whether biological or spiritual, recognize that these are the ties that bind.  Appreciate them.  Savor them.  Life is full of richness and beauty.  This weekend, in my life, it showed up as a friend willing to do a child’s hair.