Energy Redirection

I found some very dear people to me on Facebook yesterday…my Grandpa and several cousins from Oklahoma that I only get to see once every few years. I’m really excited about it, because I’ve been on Facebook a lot lately, and now I’ll be able to keep in touch with my family as well as my friends.

After my recent family reunion (paternal side), and the addition of family to my Facebook roster (maternal side), I’m beginning to realize anew the importance of family in my life. This has definitely been a year of rebuilding relationships with my blood relations. It started with my mom, dad, and stepmom. My sister, Sarona, moved back to California a year ago, and we haven’t hung out as much as we should, but it’s a vast improvement on recent years. My Grandpa Paduganan’s declining health has also caused my appreciation for family to rise quite a bit. I’ve begun to see how important all of these people are to me, and am only beginning to understand how much I missed out on having their presence and influence in my life.

I don’t want to sound like I’m devaluing my friendships with others…far from it. I have a few friends that I’d consider to be family. The McIntoshes, Ben Williams, and several others have become irreplaceable in my life, and I love them dearly.

I’m also beginning to see how selfish I am, and furthermore, how arrogant I’ve become by thinking that I can get through life by myself, through my own strength, and by my own will. That is not only completely fallacious and pretentious, but extremely sad, as well. As I quoted in a previous post, “It is not good for man to be alone.” The 16th century writer, John Donne, hit the nail square on the head when he said “No man is an island”, regarding the futility of total isolation. The greatest commandments God has given us were to love the Lord your God, and to love your neighbor as yourself. I’ve concentrated on loving myself too much, and when I’m not totally consumed in that, I pay far too much attention to fruitless relationships, and far too little on familial ones. Luckily, I haven’t burned my bridges, and I can return back to the basics.