I awoke this morning reminding myself it was Sunday and tomorrow I needed to remember to put the garbage and recycling out. After a few minutes another thought crossed my mind, “when is Family Day?”.
Family Day is a paid holiday in February that was created in 2007 in Ontario. It falls on the third Monday of the month. What was that to do with putting my garbage out? Holiday Monday’s mean it doesn’t go out until Tuesday. But that is not what I’m actually writing about today.
Family Day was created to provide a day off for families to spend time together and to honour the importance of family and the role it plays in our lives. It’s meant to celebrate the values of family, community and togetherness.
Some Thoughts on Family
I know a lot of people in my life, including myself, who have family members that the idea of spending the day around them generates a thought like, “just kill me now, please”. We don’t get to choose the family we ae born into, that’s just a fact.
Richard Bach, the author of “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” has a view I can align with: "The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life."
No matter how we’ve been raised, nor how family dynamics played out, we all have a deep desire to belong, to be part of a community of people who understands and supports us. Look around at the people who you spend the most time with.
Do they understand, support and respect you?
If the people you spend the most time with form bonds of mutual respect and connections of deep and profound sense of purpose and meaning, you have found a family on your tree of life. You may actually find over the years, you will form several of those families for different aspects of your life. The bonds in each circle are based on shared values, beliefs and experiences.
The circles will move beyond the traditional family structure of our biological connections. The bonds formed can go as deep or deeper than those formed with your family of birth.
Caring, respect and joy are universal values bringing us together no matter what our circumstances are. That is one reason deep bonds can be formed between people who meet virtually just as they can be in face to face interactions. Sometimes more so. When we embrace these ideas we create a community centered on compassion, understanding and empathy.
So Why Multiple Family Circles?
Most people have many aspects of their makeup and their interests. We bond with others for different reasons. In most cases we don’t meet people because we’re looking for a ‘family’. We’re meeting them because we are seeking common ground with interests, or we’re involved in service of some sort, a community, or a spiritual gathering.
As we meet and get to know people within that circle, bonds will start to form. Some circles in our life overlap and we’re able to share the bonding with others from another circle. Other times they remain apart. They still matter. They remain an important part of your life for what ever reason brought the circle together.
Some of my circles are bigger than others. There is a few in a circle of trust around me. They may know of each other but don’t actually know each other. Then there are the circles based on common interests and activities where the trusted few were found.
I value every one of the circles in my life. They all contribute in some way to my life and I certainly hope I contribute to theirs. At the end of the day, family and community is shared and reciprocal.
Happy Family Day.
Shadowspub writes on a variety of subjects as she pursues her passion for learning. She also writes on other platforms and enjoys creating books you use like journals, notebooks, coloring books etc.
NOTE: unless otherwise stated, all images are the author’s
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