​Family Outside The Box

I don’t know of anyone who does not realize the importance of family.  There is immediate family and extended family.  Most people define family by blood relationships.  We go so far as to recognize the families we marry into. Granted.  These are all family relationships.  What, however, about the extended family that has nothing to do with blood or marriage? 
 
You might not believe this but I see the world’s population as my family – both immediate and extended. Immediate, in the sense that I see us all as brothers and sisters.  Extended, in the sense that most relationships have the feel of an extended nature.  
 
Recently, I had a beautiful reminder of just how blessed I am to have sisters and brothers wherever they might be.  Because I step into the world, open to relating to others, I have developed some truly beautiful, lifetime relationships on my journey.  In fact, these people help make the journey a treasured experience.  Clearly, not all people are receptive to being kind or even humane but that’s okay. Frankly, that’s their loss.  Those are the extended family members.  I, of course, still love them.  
 
Back to my reminder... 
 
Years ago, in another life, I made an acquaintance who became a friend who I came to consider immediate family.  Family, so much so that she was declared my first rescue’s Godmother.  Yes, my first rescue, Nefertiti, a mixed beagle, was my child and she had a Godmother.  Anyway,...
 

​Nef’s Godmother and I allowed our life journey to take us on paths where we would make occasional contact, see each other once in a while and talk just a bit before we would lose contact altogether.  Twenty years since last seeing my “sister-from-another-mother,” a friend called to tell me he had run into my sister.  She asked if he was still in contact with me.  Ecstatic to learn she had a connection once again, my sister gave her number to my friend.  He called me to give me the news.  He had run into one of my favorite people in the whole wide world and she was anxious to reconnect with me.  And reconnect we did!  
 
Just a few days ago, I called Nef’s Godmother and we talked, laughed and caught up like two high school girls!  We picked up where we left off 20 years ago and planned to make plans for short-term get-togethers and long-term get-togethers.  
 
At first blush, it seemed as though we closed the 20-year gap but with a look from a higher consciousness, there never really was a gap.  The only perception of gap was in the form of time but time, itself, is an illusion.  At least, the Universe does not perceive time as humans do.  Thank God for that!  
 
One caveat.  Do not get cocky and think you have forever.  While time is not what it seems to the naked eye. No one knows when you will – or if you will – be given future opportunities to connect or reconnect with others.
 
Take no one and no thing for granted.  Receive, appreciate and love all family, immediate and otherwise, today.  Do this each day.
 
I am so very grateful for all family.  I realize I am abundantly blessed to have special relationships that withstand that all-so illusory (test of time) time.    
 
My sister from another mother and I had a reunion of a lifetime by phone that ended in a heartfelt, “I love you.”  
 
Do yourself the biggest favor ever.  Do away with those restrictive definitions and ideas of what family is.  All that really matters is that we are open to love.  We when open ourselves up to receiving love, the most amazing people walk into our lives and we experience unspeakable joy.  
 
Open up and just be open.  When you do, you will certainly discover your family outside the box.  
 
I can only imagine how amazing my in-person reunion will be with my sister Kay!

---