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| Photo by Bela Kalman |
Today we are preparing to attend our fourth annual Day Before Thanksgiving Chili Cookoff. It started off with just (somewhat) immediate family members of the band to which my mother belongs... and of course the band itself. As many things do it has grown over the years to include more of our extended family as well as some friends. It's one of those things that started not long after Jason and I became a serious couple and it has since grown into a great tradition that somehow signifies our transition into a family unit of our own. Each year since, it has reminded me that families grow and shift and form anew every day without so much as an announcement. No ceremony or pomp and circumstance... just bonds forming, people connecting, babies being born, couples moving from dating singles to interdependent people. A new creature. A new freedom, a new comfort, new dysfunction in some cases. But always, even as some bonds are severed, new ties are bound, new memories made. There is always room in a family. It is not a static thing that is created then kept the same.
On this eve of Thanksgiving I am reminded of one of the most important things that I have to be thankful for, the connection and bonds of family, friends and people to which I can relate. Those I don't know, and may never know personally... the people I connect to in person and online. The ones with whom I share this thing called life. Because that's what life really is all about. At the core is relationship. With our creator, with our surroundings, with animals and objects... but also with other people.
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