Family

This past weekend I was able to spend the most wonderful time with my husbands, Mothers side of the family. I don't think I have Ever met such a kind and wonderful bunch of people who actually "Enjoy" being around each other. Yes, we all have wonderful people in our families and I have to admit I think I have some pretty wonderful ones in my family also. And for this I feel very blessed. I often wonder if my parents who have been gone (dead) for 20 plus years now would be part of a fun and loving family who gathers once a year and thrives on each others company? My honest answer is um....No! I didn't have the warm an fuzzy family, that Bradey Dream family! I had the family that had the stay at home mom who hated every moment of it, with nine kids on top of it. I had the family that you could hear the yelling coming from the house a couple of houses down! I had the family that would fight with each other to really cause physical harm to each other, for example running after each other with hammers and such!!! yes, bizarre as it may sound that was my family up until I was about 13 years old! And then we moved to Florida! oh did I mention that I grew up on Leominster, Massachusetts? It's funny cause when I moved to Sebring, FL then, everyone thought if you came from Massachusetts you lived in Boston, obviously no other town was ever discussed in school. Ha Ha so everyone who lived in Massachusetts came from Boston period! So to get back to my point. My family really did put the funk in disfunctional! So my parents thought it would be good to move us (myself, my sister and my younger brother) the three little kids as we were referred to and still are! to a small town in central Florida. Sebring. I felt like I was Dorothy picked up by the twister and set down in some strange and different place! I didn't understand a word anyone said when they were talking because of the strong accents. And I'm sure they thought mine was the same. And truth be told I really could not understand the African American kids because thier accents were even worse and I had only seen on Black person my whole life when I lived in Leominster! I tell no lie I only speak the truth here. So back to the story of family, I had a crazy disfunctional family, my parents tried to take us away from it, some of the family followed and the rest stayed in New England. Just because we moved away didn't solve the problems! It seemed not so much fighting between silblings but now it was the parents turn! Augh! I swear my Dad was bipolar and was never diagnosed! He suffered from depression and was never diagnosed! He suffered from Anxiety and finally was diagnosed! So the long and short of it was I never grew up in a family that ENJOYED being around each other as much as the Cummings/Shaw families do. Once you married into this family you were there for life. They care with real feelings, not fake and then talk behind your back, they are happy, genuinely, to see you each time and saddened when they have to say goodbye. Although some might see you within the next year the real love for you is felt. I think that is the soul purpose of family, Love, plain and simple. No dressing it up, no hiding bedind something else, just genuine Love. And that is what I experienced this past weekend and what makes me joyously happy when I see all those smiling faces again. Till Next Time Cummings/Shaw Family! I'm feeling the Love!