Family trumps Community

I use the word community a lot. And I have been rethinking this word lately. Because I feel like- I know rather- that these people in my life have always been more like brothers and sisters than a group of people with shared interests. Sure, there's nothing wrong with the word community... but lately I feel like that word is too small for what I encounter on a daily basis in the people that surround me. Our shared experiences, our heart breaks and triumphs, passions and dreams- all tangled up in, wrapped up, defined by love.

I'd rather use words like family and hope than some obligation to think the same way or force quality time because we are supposed to measure out time and the quality of relationships in minutes, hours, days. For a while now I have felt guilty when I didn't pursue a relationship more or I didn't say the right things. I have felt ashamed for the conflicts and the hurt. But families do that. Families fight and they get too busy and they lose sight of what is important. And yet they always come back together, bound by some sort of biological affinity to be present in each others lives. Only this thing is more than a shared DNA, it is something deeper- reaching beyond the fact that maybe we have only known each other for seven or less years but that doesn't matter. It is the unspoken truth that we were meant to be in each other lives in the good and the bad. We are not obligated, but instead we desire each other's company and conversation. My greatest memories and my most broken points include them. And though sometimes there are things that make being a part of this great big family really hard, it is ALWAYS beautiful.

I have two biological brothers that I can't imagine not being related to and a great mother and father. But I also have Kate, Mae, Tracey, Mush, Jason, Hubba, the Listo-Avs, Tiffany, Tyner, Beth, Rosie, Jen, Lindsey, Nick, Aaron, Michelle, Jami, George, Paula, Carrington, Miles, Rachel, Emily, Elizabeth, Alex... and so many more that I can't even think of them all.

They are my family. And that's an amazingly huge word.