Family time, rare in a fast moving world, is precious By Kelly D. Arabie A few stray balloons are all that remain of the birthday festivities. My son turned one-year-old, and the highlight of the day (besides his first taste of cake) was the mini-family reunion that took place at our house. At one time, such an event was commonplace. Growing up in north Louisiana, I had my parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all within thirty miles of one another. Birthdays and holidays were filled with hubbub as we all descended on the house of choice. Then slowly, marriages and moves took their toll. First it was to south Louisiana, then Mississippi, then Virginia and North Carolina. Then Dallas, and Houston, and Lufkin. Add in a few summers of traveling for minor league baseball, and family get-togethers became a gathering of those at hand. Now, we count our blessings when grandparents, aunts, uncles, great-grandma's and grandpa's make the special trip for a birthday party. When the stars rightly align, everyone can even be in north Louisiana on the same holiday. Those precious gatherings become even dearer as the years fly by. We never know whether the same folks will be back next time, and the group is surely different each time. If you're blessed with more cousins than you can count and get together regularly, it might be tempting to skip out on one of those family events. After all, there's always next time, right? Well, maybe. Then again, maybe not. Not long ago, I realized that one side of our family hadn't all been in the same room for nearly a decade, due to military deployments, deaths, and new births. We remedied that earlier this year. We even took a picture together for the first time. I've heard nothing in life is certain except change, even in families. Change happens slowly sometimes, eroding the landscape of life. You wake up one day and realize that life is altogether different from the one you used to know. Then other times, change comes as fast and furious as a summer storm toppling trees and leaving strewn debris in its wake. Life has definitely changed since the days of commonplace family gatherings at our house. The family's so spread out now it's been a long, long time since the original group of my childhood were in the same state, much less the same house. Maybe yours is the same way. Still, we take what we can get. The next time you find yourself in a crowd of relatives, hug a few necks and take a snapshot in your mind--or with an actual camera. Remember that family is one of the few things that last forever. But you won't have them with you forever here. Tell your family you love them. If necessary, use words. And as for our birthday party, I'd venture to say a good time was had by all. A few folks were missed, but those present made the day a treasure I will hang on to. Until next time. Kelly Arabie is the former Kelly Dingler, who grew up in Arcadia and Ruston, Louisiana. She is a graduate of Ruston High School, Louisiana Tech University, and Dallas Theological Seminary. Her parents are Jerry and Gwen Dingler of Ruston. She is married to Trey Arabie of New Orleans. They live in Lewisville, Texas, a Dallas suburb, and have two children, Kate, 3, and John M., who turned one-year old last month. |