my anchored life:

This post is part of my Write 31 Days challenge and also the Five-Minute Friday online community that I participate in each Friday.  A one-word prompt is given every Friday and we are encouraged to just free-write for 5 minutes and post it to our blogs without over-thinking or editing. If you’d like to participate, you can get more info on the Five-Minute Friday community and link-up on this site.  For more information about 31 Days click here.  

Wife.  Mother.  Daughter.  Sister.  Granddaughter.  Niece.  Cousin.  Daughter-in-law.  Sister-in-law.  Auntie.  Best Friend.  These are the things I am.  These are the things that others label me as when they say my name.

Family is a recurring theme on my gratitude list:

57.  The way my dad calls me every year on December 28th and sings me “Feliz Cumpleaños.” 

25.  My mother’s prayers.  

12.  Sisters and Sisters-in-Law.

62.  Aunt Sher’s homemade everything….especially pizza.

23.  Memories of holding my grandma’s hand.  

39. The cheerful way my Mother-in-Law says “hello” on the phone.

My family is so far from conventional.  It’s messy.  It’s beautiful.  It’s mixed-up and mushed together.  We dance to salsa and polka.  Holidays at home have tables piled high with pasta, pizzelles, arroz con gandules, & pernil.  There are step-s and half-s and people I call abuela and tío whose blood is nowhere to be found in my veins.  Add into that mix my very best friends–the people I just stumbled upon in this journey of life– who have become as close as siblings and whose parents I love as much as my own.

Together all these people taught me how to love.  Loving them taught me that bloodlines aren’t as important as moments spent together.  That meals are less about sharing food and more about sharing lives.  That there is always a ten-fold return on our investment when we invest time into each other.  Loving them is the essence my life story and being loved by them has enriched that story immensely.