Who doesn’t love family? My Mom has talked about how close her family was growing up in Niagara Falls with family along one street – or nearby.

Unfortunately in this modern world, we tend to have families who are spread not only across a province, across the country, or around the world. It is good to have the technology, but even as we have been having a family dinner together here in Edmonton each week, it does feel better to be able to sit in the same room together.

I”ve heard some people say that they are glad they don’t live near their family or further people who’ve moved deliberately to get away from family. That’s unfortunate. I remember in a couple of our corps grandparents not allowed to see or be near their grandchildren – that’s really tragic.

But whatever the reason, family is still family. Treasuring family and building positive and nurturing relationships can be hard but seems essential to growing healthy people. I’m not a sociologist nor a psychologist but the value of family to our society can’t be understated in my opinion. We’ve got friends that don’t have a spouse or children and they lean into the relationships with nieces and nephews!

Our family is super important, and we try to stay connected. When my parents went to the United Kingdom to live for a few years, my Mom bought a book on how to be a long-distance grandparent and did lots of things, including a diary for each of the boys, where she recorded what they did and saw while they were away.

It’s partially why I started this blog, as a way of recording what we were doing for family when we left Ontario in 2000 to move to Calgary. I wanted my folks and other family members to be able to see what life was like when we weren’t together very often. That’s developed quite a bit over the years and now includes my YouTube channel to capture videos of the family too.

And in capturing these stories and pictures we’re capturing the growth and changes to our family, which looking back bring such great feelings! Yes, memories never arrive without an attached emotion – good or bad, joy or sorrow.

I remember this moment like it was yesterday. Having fallen off a mountain – and no I didn’t push him, when it was time to cut the cast off I thought it would make a great photo to remember that event! I suspect Philip remembers it too!

When Philip took this trip to be with my Mom and Dad no one knew what would happen soon after with Dad getting sick and all that would lead to his being promoted to glory.

And of course family means celebrations. Whether it is graduation or birthday parties, marriages, and births. Being outside those celebrations seems, hard to imagine, or worse tragic. But being inside means being willing to be part of them, being an encouraging member of the family, and being kind and considerate. I don’t think I should need to say it, but sadly most families seem to have members that just don’t act like that.

And of course, being a family has so many rewards. I loved my summers with my grandmother and my time with cousins, and being raised in a loving home had so many perks! Not everyone has that blessing.

So what is it you love about your family?