My Weird and Wonderful Family of Origin

 I come from a big family. My Mother and Father had six kids, five of whom survived to become adults. My Mother and Step Dad had four kids, all of whom survived to become adults. My Father and his third Wife had one child, which survived to become an adult. The third wife, after divorcing my Dad, had 3 more children by three different men, all of whom survived to become adults.

That is a lot of kids. and that became a lot of adults.

And since then they have been reproducing. A lot. And the reproductions have, in a lot of cases, also reproduced.

So there is a heck of a lot of us.

And we each, as Human Beings, have our own little quirks. Weird little ways of being that help us to define who we are and distinguish us from others. And some of those quirks are really adorable, and some are not so adorable.

All of which make us unique Human Beings.

One of the things that is also true in my fam is that we have all had Trauma we have had to deal with. Some greater than others. And all of us have had to learn how to deal with it.

Some of our quirks are truly fun. There is a lot of humor within this family. Sometimes my family can be absolutely hilarious. Sometimes purposefully and sometimes unintentionally. Often times, when we are trying to be our most serious, it can be the absolute funniest. And sometimes, when we are trying to be funny, it can fall so flat.

A lot of times when trying to be funny it lands as funny. And a lot of times when trying to be serious it lands as serious. Which is all the more tragic.

We have often forgotten that in order to live we must laugh. And most often the one we must laugh at the most is ourselves.

So do not ever forget "Rule 62", which states "Don't take yourself so damn seriously". (If you know, then you know)

There are times when we are so loving and supportive of each other. It can be wonderful. It feels good as well. When we are pulling together and making life better for all of us is when I truly believe that we are truly living up to what Family means.

And at other times we can be very fractious and divided. There can be factions with different ideas of right and wrong, and especially of who is right and who is wrong. And things can get tense. To put it mildly.

And there can be the times in between when we are all going about our lives and not interacting with fam outside of our little space. We talk occasionally and have the sporadic family event, and for the most part we are just living our lives.

And life goes on.

At every point in my life there have been times when, even though I love a particular family member, I do not like them much right then. And the family member in that place is rotating usually.

And I am absolutely sure that I have been in that place multiple times with other family members. Because I know that I am not the easiest person to live with either.

Seems like pretty much all families I suppose. Every family I know has this dynamic in some form or another.

And all of that together makes up this weird and wonderful bunch of people with whom I am somehow family related. The people that make up my "Family of Origin".

It is said that you can pick your friends but you can't pick your family. I disagree with that. I have Chosen all these people. These are My Family. That is what we are. And, even in my worst moments, when I really don't like anyone, I would not change that.

I have a Family that I have Chosen that is not a part of my Family of Origin. And I have my Family of Origin that I have also Chosen.

And all of them are equally My Family.

Because I Choose it to be so.

That makes me a very Fortunate person.