Family.  What a broad topic.  It is a topic that I am certain that I will approach often and from many different angles.  I think that each of us have many facets to what we consider our family.  I think too, that our family evolves many times throughout our life. 

There is a popular saying that cousins are you first best friends.  I see this to be true in my generation and older generations.  Now, I think in some instances this is still true.  I think though that many cousins don’t live in the same regions of the country or world.

For me as a child, I had cousins close by and far away.  I also had the luxury of living beside my grandmother and seeing my cousins from out of town pass our house on the way to grandma’s.  This was a sure indication that I should put my shoes on, or maybe not, just high tail it to meet and greet my cousins.  Within minutes the kids would she shooed to the living room to “talk politics” as grandma used to say.

On my mom’s side of the family.  We were all in close proximity to cousins.  We would see each other weekly. 

I guess thinking about this now, I was fortunate.  I am the youngest of 4.  All of my cousins begin at my age and younger.  I suspect my sister and brother’s may not have the same point of view.

Through the years and with the chaos of life, time eludes all of us, even cousins.  In many cases, we turn into “wedding and funeral relatives”.  This is very true on my dad’s side of the family.  Everyone was and has spread around the country.  You hear of family triumphs and sadness.  Not much more.  To that point, I promised my cousin 5 months ago to find pictures of our grandparents and family and share with her.  It will get done.  Soon. 

In my case, with my mom’s side of the family, we have been fortunate to live within a reasonable distance of each other.  So we would run into each other occasionally.  But we were also fortunate enough to have my grandmother live a very long life.  With elderly years though, she needed care and some of the grandkids were able to step in and help when needed.  This gave us cousins a like cause to share in and refriend each other.

With this, we planned picnics for my grandmother and invited her nieces and nephews and our immediate families.  We would quickly have 50 people who all shared a bond of family.  We would just eat and talk.  We would take lots of pictures.  I am sure that the picnics were enjoyed by all of us for different reasons.  For my cousins and I who planned them, the reasons were to see our families enjoy their time together and to know that our mom’s and grandmother could take a stroll down memory lane.  For others, it was a time to catch up. 

The one sure thing about family is that there is always an unspoken bond.  There is always a past and hopefully always a future.  In my family, with my cousins there is always a need to tease and laugh.