Presence : A Life Long Tradition of Sharing

        I have been blessed to grow up in an environment with a lot of family. I have always lived with in 5 minutes of my grandparents on both sides, aunts, uncles, and cousins. I have grown up having holidays, birthdays, and family dinners regularly. There has always been support and love in my family on both sides. I am so lucky to have that strong connection and bond with the members of my family and find my time with family to be some of my favorite moments.As many of you know from other posts I have written my family faces a variety of struggles. One of the most impacting being my fathers illness Alpha-1, which is a lung and liver disease. We face challenges and an unknown future that we try our best to overcome but some days it gets the best of us. It is a matter of learning how to be flexible and preserver when things don't go your way. Since we began facing these challenges 7 and half years ago, family has become even more important to me and the traditions that we have are even more impactful and important.
           Today's word for my 31 days of December is traditions. While I could list off a long list of traditions that my family has I have decided that I am not going to name them off rather I am going to talk about my favorite tradition that my family has. My favorite tradition is by far just spending time together. My parents and I can have a great time just sitting at home watching a movie together or going out for a family dinner at a local restaurant. To me traditions aren't the big glittering events you do once a year but they are the things you do all the time and the things you find to be the most enjoyable. Yes I enjoy the big glittering events but spending time, talking with my immediate family or extended family I find to be so much more rewarding then opening gifts and parties. Taking the time to talk and find out what is going on in other peoples worlds. It is amazing the things you can find out by sharing, a tradition that is long lost under all of the hubbub of the Christmas and Thanksgiving.
         Take the time to share with one another. Listen and truly be present for the conversation so that you are not only responding to what the person has shared with you but thoughtfully taking part in the conversation.

Today's Picture is a picture of my family that was taken on our vacation this summer in the Grand Tetons.


Until tomorrow, share with one another. 

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