Today was a nice and relaxing day. I woke up and for a split second I had no idea where I was though... So that was fun! Once I realized that I was not, in fact, in my bedroom back home, I shuffled downstairs and ate some cereal and banana bread while I read the paper. After some lounging and a shower, our company had arrived!
Sharon, who's my mother's sister, invited a few of her female cousins over for lunch. Or I guess two of them were her first cousins and one of them was technically a generation above them even though she wasn't that much older... Anyways, they were all Strite women, and their side of the family and our side of the family lost touch over the years after some apparent family drama. Long story short, Sharon has since gotten back in touch with them, and I spent my afternoon hanging out with a group of relatives I had never met!
I heard some stories I had never heard, saw some pictures I had never seen, and munched on some delicious food. My favorite lentil soup, bruschetta, eggplant capanata, hummus. Yum.
It was really nice meeting my second (?) cousins. It just baffles me that I was eating lunch with these relative strangers who share DNA with me. I mean, I obviously knew that my mother had cousins and stuff, but somehow today that took on a somewhat different meaning. Sitting around the dining room table were five women who are very different and have had very different lives, but we can all trace our family trees to the same point. There's something powerful about that and I'm not sure why.
Family is a funny thing. You can share your genes with complete strangers, or with people you don't particularly like, and these people are technically considered your family. However, you also end up picking up pieces of your family along the way in the form of friends, creating a network of people often more important to you than those people you share blood with. Whoever said that blood is thicker than water, I think you got it wrong.
This trip has already reminded me that I've been fortunate enough in my life to have created a pretty kick ass family. Some of them are related by blood, some by laughter and memories. I can sit and feel sorry for myself every once in a while, feeling hopeless about the drama occurring in my traditional "family," but I can't let myself get stuck like that. My family, the one I hold near and dear to my heart, doesn't look like your family. But I wouldn't have it any other way.
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