What Family means to me

When I was a child, my family was my world. My mother was the giver of life. She was the rock upon which I was built. My father worked hard for us. He loved us as best he could. Family also meant a sister and a brother. Sometimes when you think there’s not enough, you don’t always share very well. While we didn’t always get along, we always knew that our family was the most important thing. I was lucky to also have a wonderful grandmother whose love shone down on us and washed through each generation like a great clean waterfall.

As I grew up, I found lots of friends and acquaintances. While I grew very close to many of them, I always knew that no matter what happened, at my core was this thing called Family. The values of love, respect, compassion and tolerance, along with a deep and abiding faith that God could and would do for us what we alone could not do for ourselves, these have sustained me throughout my life.

I now have a wife who makes me complete. With her as my partner, I now live as part of a broad community. This new Family starts with two and expands outward to include everyone in our lives. This is only possible because of the great love given to me by my original Family.

In my inner Spirit World, there are great beacons. They are like grand lighthouses, rich and inviting. They warm me and light my way. They renew me and reconnect me to God and to myself.

They are my Family.

William Daugherty
December 24th, 1999