I have so many memories from my childhood that I will always cherish. 99% of them include my cousins and my grandparents. We loved then and we love now. Although not as close as we all once were, we still love each other. That is how we were raised. Never fight but if you do always forgive.
We've grown up and have our lives, many spread far away, yet we still love. The way of our world.
As I think of making new memories with loved ones in my life I smile, remembering the love and laughter as a child. I smile knowing we were and are so loved. I smile knowing how fortunate I was to be raised as I was in the family I was raised in. Cousins abound. I may need to be corrected but I believe it was a total of 17 cousins, myself included. That in itself is amazing. I look at my cousins' Facebook pages and realize how many second cousins I have, correct me here too, but I believe I have 43 second cousins on my father's side. My family is large and they love large. All held together by my amazing and wonderful Grandmother, Barbara.
I can only strive, in the end, to be as she is and to wish my children had the amazing cousins and childhood I had. To grow without worry and love and laugh and play without abandon. Family is, in its entirety, all we have when it is said and done.
Make new memories. Make new friends. Welcome people with open arms and love and laugh. Live. But never forget where you started and what shaped you.
As my Aunt Bobbie always said "Remember who you are". I am fortunate to never forget, Aunt Bobbie.
