probably needs a rewrite- day 23

 Oh no, I missed writing yesterday! 

Goals are guides. She moves forward...

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

One of the greatest blessings of my life is being from a big family. Let me rephrase- One of the greatest blessings of my life is being from a big family that absolutely loves each other. I have two friends in this world, and one of them is my sister. I can't go more than five days without seeing at least one of my brothers. I'm in a book club where 70% of the members are my immediate family lol. You get it. 

I cannot imagine life without them, their spouses, their children, their in-laws...it is absolutely incredible how love and family compound and grow and transform in to a network of people who care about you, and ask your mom how you are, and pray for you, and invite you into their hearts and lives... it's just beautiful.

Unfortunately, there is always a yin to the yang, and such high highs, come with some low lows. 

When you love people, you are so uniquely one with them, their joys are your joys and their pain is your pain. When one of my siblings is hurting, I am with them in that pain.  No one escapes hardship and tragedy, and the more people you love and care for, the more you expose yourself to bearing that hardship and tragedy with them. And praise God for that. Truly. No one should have to sit in their sadness alone.

I guess what I am reflecting on is how my life can be perfectly fine, and yet not at all. Because when one of us is down, we all are. But what a privilege that is, what an honor it is, to have a family that is so bound to one another, that we are all in it. Life is mostly really, really hard. And I am reminded over and over that good, god-fearing people are the ones who go through the hard with you.