The Meaning of Family Reunion

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I grew up in a very small family. I’m an only child. My mother had one sister who never had children. My father’s side of the family is large, but since he left when I was 6 year’s old, I never grew up around uncles, aunts and cousins. When Carlin and I got together, I married into a very large family that has gotten together over the years for family reunions. I never understood the value of these reunions until recently.

We just got back from a weekend in the Santa Cruz mountains where our cousin Randy hosted this year’s reunion. It was held at the Walden West Outdoor Science School where Randy volunteers. The school itself has been around since the 1950s and has been teaching kids how to understand and stay in good relationship with the environment long before environmental education became popular.

We arrived Friday just as the last group of kids was getting ready to leave. Each year there seem to be more people at the reunion. Each year one of the elders is missing because they didn’t want to make the trip or had passed away. Each year there are a few more babies and the youngsters seem to have grown a foot taller.

More than anything though, each year reminds me how blessed we are to be alive, to live in this wonderful country (despite our current administration’s craziness. It really is time for them to be asked to leave), and to be part of an extended family of friends and relatives. We never do anything spectacular at the reunions. We just eat together, talk, catch up on our lives, and share our love for each other.

Carlin and I have 5 grown children and 10 grandchildren. Since they live in different places, it’s rare that we are all together in one place at one time. We usually visit them in small groups. This year was no exception. My son was there with his girlfriend. My daughter Angela was there with her three children. For the first time the children’s father, Walt joined us.

That’s another interesting thing about family reunions. In this day and age, we have families that extend in unique ways. Angela and Walt are no longer together, but they still parent their children together. Sometimes the kids are with him, sometimes with her. Yet we’re all family and Walt’s being at the reunion reminded me how important we all are to each other.

Randy’s wife, Raymar, had a lot of her relatives at this reunion, as she did at the last one. As we extend outward and pull more of us in, the "family" grows. In some ways we are all part of a large family of human beings. Spending time together, working out our differences, finding joy in singing together, dancing together, and eating together, reminds me that it is possible for the family of humans to get along.

Thank you to all my family for being there. I hope we go on forever. Have you experienced a family reunion lately? What stood out for you about it? Share your stories.