Day 8 Gratitude Challenge – Family and Friends

08/06/2016

“In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Today the challenge brings me to reflect on family and friends.

Family at a basic level are those people that are related to you through a connection of DNA, genes and chromosomes. People who recognise the time in which you all grew up, who share similar memories of the people and places that established the foundations of your living and life.

At a more complex level family are like a web woven with a shared thread. The web’s links are both fragile and strong, pieces are broken and frayed but the total web still holds together. Sometimes you become trapped in the sticky treads of emotions, guilt, expectations and familiarity, longing to break away but being pulled back into the complex, interconnected structure that is family.

There is a beauty when the sun strikes the droplets of water clinging the web and for many this beauty is love that shivers through and over the web. For me family is an enduring comfort and understanding that I am not alone. So to my brother and sisters I give thank to the weave that holds us together knowing that there is someone sort of, like me in the world.

Friends are a gift, they are connected to the soul. Like grains of sand on a beach there are endless people you come into contact with but only a very few become friends. They bring joy, laughter, strength, truth, support, reflection and comfort into your life. They give you a place beyond family to rest and renew.

I am the tree of life, the web connected to me is my family and the singing birds amongst the branches my friends. I give thank for having these complex and wonderful connections in my life.

To my family and friends with a bright shining love I thank you for being in and part of my life.