The word family conjures up a range of emotions and thoughts, usually linked to our family of origin. Some of us have had especially loving experiences in families, while others have had horrific experiences, and most of us have had a mixed bag of love and good intentions, along with some degree of dysfunction.
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary definition of family is quite benign:
1 : a social group made up of parents and their children. 2 : a group of people who come from the same ancestor. 3 : a group of people living together : household.
To most of us, the word family is not benign at all, but perhaps what this dictionary definition gives us is an opportunity to define for ourselves what family is, beyond the facts of having some common DNA or a shared residence at some point.
What’s missing from the dictionary definition is that family is really about loving and caring for one another. This need not be confined to a particular structure, nor does it need to be based in biological connections.
I am inspired to see that family is being redefined in so many ways to meet the diverse needs of individuals and groups. I know many people who have their family of origin, and then they also have their family of choice, who are those people they have consciously come into relationship with to create the function of family in a more meaningful way than what they experience in their family of origin.
Aside from the natural role of family to provide a unit of people who care and look out for one another, family also provides us with the learning and experience to bring this love and caring on a larger level to our one human family. Whatever our family looks like, whether of origin or choice, the potential is great for uplifting our planet as we apply what we learn in family on a much larger scale in our world.
Putting all of our judgments aside, we are ultimately here to love all beings. Our nature is love. Love is a synonym for God. Family is the place where we learn to love and accept each person for who they are, and to keep on loving them with all of their seeming shortcomings and missteps.
Together as a human family we are learning what it is to love and care for one another. We are further learning how to embrace all of our diversity and differences, coming to appreciate our differences rather than feel threatened by them.
In 1993, the United Nations proclaimed May 15 of every year as the International Day of Families. The invitation this week as we approach May 15 on Sunday is to reflect upon and give thanks for the role family has played in your personal evolution as a spiritual being having a human experience. The call is to take some time to deepen your connection to your family (of origin or choice) and then to reflect on how you can bring the loving and caring you bring in family on a larger scale to our one human family.
We would love to hear about any of your family insights or experiences on our Somseva Facebook group page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/somseva/
Enjoy the journey.
Somseva™ 
How Lovely to mark this National Day of Family with the fact that all my children were here with me over the weekend and we did not even have the awareness of the intended until now. We all felt renewed and strengthened in our love as we shared, talked, played board games and generally just enjoyed each other and all of our inherent differences. I love that as we accept each other and all of what has been created by each as our life experience; that we each take this deep love and our bonds and move them within worlds that work for all of us. Our anchor is support, love and Spirit Divine, how ever each chooses to define it. And we are able to laugh at our differences within that love. No conflict! Beautiful!!
Beautiful, Deanna. Thanks for sharing.
Reblogged this on GregoryToole.com.