An Eventful Night!

Today I had my family over for a summer cookout. When I say family, I don't mean my kids. I use family in the Latino sense. 

My life is so complicated, at times absorbed by work, and school; and my family brings such great simplicity that places everything into perspective.

We ate, we laughed, we almost cried and some almost fought ...  a normal family.

At the end of the night all the adults sat around the living room, some on the couches and some on the floor. In that space that is hardly used I had the core of my upbringing, I had the ones that helped become the woman that I am today. It was like having a treasure right there in front of my eyes...my mom, my grandma, my uncles, my aunts and my cousin. We told stories of passion, pain, suffering, courage, love and above all... family.

By listening to the stories I realized the impact that my family had  and still have in my life and the way I raise my children. I saw  courage,  strong will to go on despite the obstacles. I saw the great passion placed in relationships and the pain experienced after they end. I saw open wounds that still bleed occasionally. I heard about adultery and how a marriage became stronger after it. I heard about forgiveness, and motherhood. I heard how one have been there for the other in times of pain and suffering to help carry their load. Right there I reaffirmed how lucky I am to be born in this family. I also realized that I want to do this more often because I don't do it enough. I want to be a hoarder of memories, and allow moments like this to take my breath away... many more times.


We are not perfect, but we are perfectly imperfect. This family is like a forest, there are different trees but they all bring beauty to the scenery. Everyone is purposeful and beautiful in their own way. The most important thing is to accept each other as we are because we all have a story behind us and we need to create the forum for those stories to be told.