My family isn't the type which exerts pressure on its members to live in a certain place, or within a certain distance of other family members. (I've never understood that, really. There is more than one great place to live and raise a family). My parents think it is good for their children to move away and establish their own homes and lives. My siblings and I have spread all over the map - Boston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Indiana, California, even Ireland and Switzerland have been homes for my siblings and their families.
You might think that this vast geographical distance has made it impossible for us to maintain close relationships. But you would be wrong. Thanks to a little help from the internet, in the past 24 hours 36 emails have been sent and received by my siblings, their spouses, and my parents (I contributed a handful to that number). Many are just a couple sentences - excitement over new Wii Fit equipment, comments on things that were going on this weekend, sharing an interesting news article - but it's one big group conversation that never quits. Over the past week I have received at least a dozen pictures of my nieces and nephews, my sister sent a digital recording of her daughter playing a piece at her piano recital (how fun to be able to listen to my niece's performance, just as if I had been there in person!), my mom sent the weekly recording of my Dad's Institute class so we can all listen, and just this morning she sent another page from the personal history of my Grandma, which she has been working on compiling. I have been completely filled in on what is going on with my entire family.
I also talked on the phone last week to two of my sisters and my mom, and enjoyed a couple of family blog posts. But, while I love the individual conversations (and the hilarious blog posts), I love that we aren't limited to them. I'm so grateful to be able to keep in touch with my entire family on a daily basis. While I would be happy to live closer to any of them for the simple reason that time spent with my family is mainly time spent laughing my head off, I feel I can honestly say we are all just as close as if we lived next door to each other.
So it's great that we don't have to. We can live in different and exciting places and count down the days till the next family reunion, all the while staying closely connected. And continuing to laugh our heads off.
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2 comments:
Amen! I am so grateful for all the communication options/advances in this day and age, too! It's amazing how in-touch you can be with loved ones halfway around the world. Though someday I would love to live much closer to family, the ease of communication available makes being far apart sooooo much more do-able.
I am too grateful for technology. It was great to have a conference call with all the Overly's thanks to David. My family is finally getting a little more advanced in e-mail, my parents send us a message at least a couple times a week just to let us know whats going on. I love it. Maybe we could convert the Overly side a little at a time. =)
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