Family...The Circle Continues

 Like millions of others, we had family over tonight. We barbecued, ate too much, hung out, caught up, and eventually, said our good-byes. It was a fantastic day.

As my two married children sat on our back porch, I snapped a picture (that's me reflected in the mirror camera phone in hand...). We get together when we can, but our family is growing, just like when I was a childhood family of my siblings and my mom did, just like my parents's families did, and so on, and so on...

Since the beginning of time.

Soon, my son and his wife will become parents themselves, just like my wife and I did almost thirty years ago. Funny how life is a circle...just depends on where you are in that circle.

I remember after my father passed away, my mom's family became a second family for her and my siblings. We spent Christmas together and vacationed in southeastern Idaho almost every summer. A few years later, they stopped coming down for Christmas. I remember being sad, but also I realized that our huge family had been downsized. 

For years, it was my mom, brother, sister, and me. It stayed that way until us kids grew up and went our separate ways. My sister got married, then my brother, then me. When our kids were young, we'd gather at my mom's house, just like we did today. Eventually, my siblings's kids grew and some had kids of their own. Their circle is coming back around...

So is ours.

In a few decades, God willing, my kids and their kids/spouses will gather at their homes, perhaps barbecue (if people still do that sort of thing...), eat too much, hang out, catch up. Where my wife and I are now, they will one day become...

The circle continues.