The "Piece-able" Things

Traditionally when one is seeking peace and refuge he heads for home. Home and family are the things that usually offer us comfort and support in trying times. I've noticed, however, that in these trying times that our families, instead of bringing us peace, are falling to pieces. The confusion that follows this break-down has left many of us wondering how to react, and adding a whole new chapter to"Emily Post's" book of etiquette. Where is home when your parents are divorced, each married to someone else; who do you invite to "family" get-togethers when your sibling's ex is in town, but has the kids, which are technically still "family"? What is a family? That concept is constantly being re-worked in the media in order for those whose "traditional" family has fallen to pieces to still feel like a family. With same-sex marriages, and alternate lifestyles being "hot" political topics, you almost can't say the word "family" without someone condemning your comments. Personally, I believe that the ideal family is Dad, Mom and kids, but I also recognize that bad stuff happens and that the ideal isn't always possible. On the other hand, I think that the ideal is a lot more possible than people want to think. As I mentioned in an earlier post, when we're young we take things apart and learn about the pieces, in order to then comprehend the whole. Unfortunately, many of us are forgetting that the pieces make a bigger whole, and we get stuck mistakenly believing that a "piece" is the whole thing. We forget, or fail to learn that we, ourselves, are only "pieces" in a bigger whole. Words like "sacrifice", "service", "compromise" and "selflessness" are being slowly eradicated from our consciousness, only to be replaced by "self-fulfillment", "selfishness", and "ME". When this happens families do fall apart, because the whole concept of "family" is based on looking beyond yourself to the needs of others, and if you can't do that then you can't sustain a family relationship for long. It's time to put the pieces back together kids! It's time to allow ourselves to mature and grow-up, to let go of the superficial and reach for the supernal. A wise person once said "It all begins with me" and it's true. When it seems like everything is falling to pieces around us, we can make something whole, by looking beyond ourselves. Perhaps as we do this we will find the peace that comes from putting together the pieces.