a surprise encounter

So tonight I had a surprise encounter.  I ran into one of my cousins.   And this doesnt sound as though it should be so surprising...

but it is.

And I'll tell you why, with this confession I admit a sad reality, that we are not as good a family as we should be.  Please don't misunderstand me, we do nothing to hurt one another, we do not speak ill of eachother, the issue really is that we simply do NOTHING.  We are friends on facebook, but that means nothing as I believe that on facebook I am a fan of my friends cat...we might even be friends.

It occured to me this evening that the last time I saw this particular cousin of mine was at a funeral, and the time before was a funeral and the time before that was at a funeral.  SAD.   It was truly sad to me that we really behave like a family when people die.  And when I evaluating this epiphany of behaving as a family only when people die, it occured to me well we all are getting older and well thats the reason that we don't see one another, I had to ask myself isn't that exactly why we should spend time with our families, because they are growing and always adding new members.  

The funeral that I saw my cousin at last, was when my daughter was first born...she is 9 years old now.  Too me this is INSANE.

I know that many of us out there, say to ourselves "well they don't make the effort so why should I?"  but does it ever occur to us that they might be saying the very same thing...

I guess that since this is my year of change this is something that I need to make the effort to do differently...to be a better more active member of my family.  I hope that I will see this cousin of mine as well as others, aunts, uncles, everyone, prior to a funeral.  Love should be what ties our families together not death.

Happy Reading!