Family

From February 25, 2000

Over the past couple of months, I've been pouring over old issues of the family newsletter. The idea was to create some kind of "Timeline," a way to chronicle what we have done with our lives over a period of time, and put it in a "nutshell."

The result was a Timeline. The more I worked on the Timeline, the more it became my favorite part of the newsletter. You see, this is what it's all about... right here, in this newsletter. This is who we are, and what we are... all of it, right here. Everything we are: our hopes, our dreams, our heartbreaks and sorrows, our successes, our failures... quite literally, our lives. I was holding in my hands, what I hold more dear to my heart than anything else: my family, the people I love.

It doesn't matter that some of the goals and plans we had were never met, or that blunders were made along the way, because the hope to succeed will always endure. We will keep on living, and dreaming, and trying, and hope will be right along-side us. With that hope, comes the love and support that each of us has to offer. We have been there for each other in the past, and we will be there again in the future. The family bond I have often spoken about in past issues of the Newsletter will continue to grow stronger as we grow and mature in our lives, as we learn and strive toward new goals and new successes.

As this century and millenium comes to a close, let's not close off our life-lines to each other in all our daily hustle and bustle and "busy-ness." Let's keep the lines open so we will be there for each other. Let us improve upon the next years. Who can say what events will have transpired and shaped our lives by then?

In whatever we do, I plead with you not to let go of what matters most. No matter what happens, please respect the fact that we are a unique family. We must support each other and love each other, and accept each other, faults and all. Because really, it's all that we have, and all that we are.