Family Life

I'm thinking about family dynamics a lot lately. Therapy forced me to look at my own family and look at the roles and responsibilities each person holds in order to make the group function. We establish our roles in a family early on. It's interesting that no matter how much we all change individually, it is more comfortable to regress to our comfort zones as a community.

My brother, Adam, came home this past weekend. We attended a wedding as a family where I got to observe other families interact with my own. When my entire family is together, I notice the complex dynamics that come out in such simple ways. For example, all five of us were in one hotel room with only one bed. Everyone's complaints about one another or ways of coping with the situation said a lot about each of us. It also reminded me what an introvert I am and had me needing quiet. We went straight from the wedding and dropping Adam off at the airport to a family reunion, which really brought out reflections on family dynamics.

Family keeps us humble. When I see a lot of my distant relatives, I cannot connect with them. I think how I would have nothing to do with them in the real world if it weren't for our genetic connection. I'm not saying this to sound like different is bad. I just noticed how different our lives were and how we value such opposite things, and I felt amazed to think that something as simple as sharing some genetic makeup keeps us in each other's lives.

I had the privilege of meeting up with some friends in DC where we compared our family systems and what sort of issues threaten and/or change those dynamics. It's interesting to hear about all of the different issues families deal with. For example, I have friends who have really strained familial relationships, but because they are family, they strive to maintain some sort of connection. I think there's something animalistic and instinctual about maintaining contact with those who share our genetic makeup and/or backgrounds. Like, I've always marveled at the relationships between siblings and how no one knows your background better than your siblings. No one understands talk about your parents better than your siblings. I mean there's just a powerful bond that keeps me needing to be close to my siblings as both friends and family members.

This is straying from my original thoughts, but I'm rather apathetic. I don't want to retrace my thoughts or put effort into constructing a masterpiece. This is my blog, and I can write whatever I want. Stream of consciousness is just what I needed to write tonight.