looking through me

Write about one topic every day for 31 days . . . really? That’s ridiculous.

Or maybe not.

Maybe if I whittled down to the core, if I sifted past the extraneous and found what remained, maybe I would find my foundation—the platform from which I write about all else.

And when I do, I find family.

Family. The thread running through all I am and all I do.

I was tied in at birth to an amazing collection of people united by blood and choice. Two generations above me two men opted out and two more opted in and adopted their stepchildren, my parents. Choices of inclusion craft the culture of welcoming people into our clan. I, too, view family as a hybrid of those we love because they’re ours and those we choose to declare ours because we love them.

Scrolling through the memories I see many other faces, many other names, fingerprints of many other sculptors who have shaped me.

This month is not a closed book. It isn’t comprehensive. Family can’t be constrained in 31 posts. But maybe, just maybe, I can capture a glimpse of how I see life through the lens of family.

Please feel free to bookmark this page for easy access to a running list of all posts this month. Or subscribe to receive an email for each new post.

Day 2: Great-Grandma
Day 3: Max
Day 4: aunts and uncles and aunts and uncles
Day 5: Fair?
Day 6: not even brothers
Day 7: Grandma’s face
Day 8: Saturday mornings
Day 9: special days
Day 10: home alone
Day 11: two are better than one
Day 12: unwrapped presents
Day 13: bird lessons
Day 14: family dinner
Day 15: the uncles
Day 16: the long walk
Day 17: backseat road trips
Day 18: perpetual cookie
Day 19: sharing Grandma
Day 20: driving with maps
Day 21: in the stands
Day 22: Grandma’s roots
Day 23: Oh, Brothers
Day 24: because
Day 25: Prayer Moms
Day 26: in-laws
Day 27: resident baker
Day 28: run, run, run
Day 29: O, Cousin(s), where art thou?
Day 30: like family
Day 31: done, already?