Family

In honor of Thanksgiving (which is in 6 days!!), I'm doing a post about family. Father Mike gave a pretty good homily last night about how family is messy and crazy and we fight, but yet we're family... that's what family is. It's a beautiful mess, but it is our beautiful mess. Well, no. That's not what his homily was really about.. it was about treating our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, as family-- making their mess ours, giving them time and attention, and loving them... and so on. 


But I want to focus on the family part. The fellow Oakes-Youngs-Benson family. They are my family. I sit here, at college, and I miss them. I miss them like crazy, all I want is to go home, see them. Have my dad tell me to do the dishes or complain about the recycling, have my mom wondering how the kitchen gets so dirty after only a few hours, and my sisters, my amazing and wonderful sisters... one fighting over clothing and the other cutting coupons in the most inconvenient places.. my nieces, in all their glory being noisy. I love them. I love the crazy, the mess, the annoying comments about cleaning or the inability to fit everyone in the living room. I love it. 

I get home, and I get annoyed. I get mad because we can't get through dinner without someone saying something that makes someone else mad. It makes me angry when my parents expect me to clean up messes I didn't make because I want to relax and enjoy my time home... but that's what family does. We make sacrifices for each other. I look back at all the times I rolled my eyes and complained about doing someone else's dishes, and I'm ashamed. I should have been happy to do them. I should have been proud to stand up and help out where I was needed. 

Family is messy. Family is annoying. Family can be infuriating. But, Family is beautiful. Family is love. My family is MINE. No one can take that from me. They're my beautiful mess. I am so proud, and so lucky to be part of my family.