Reaching Out... Gotta do it!

Today I decided to reach out to some of my family members.  My relationships with some of them is one of the many stressors that precipitated my joy journey.  I'm thankful that we're not totally estranged but we don't speak to one another nearly as often as we should... or could.  

Sometimes family relations just aren't the way they should be.   "Can't we all just get along?'   Guess not.

Many of my family members I speak with often and we have a good relationship, but a few others are strained.  It truly saddens me that some of us rarely speak to one another, due to old wounds and hurts on both ends.   I single no one person out because we are all to blame for the state we're in.

One of the things I hope for this year is to make my relationships with all of my loved ones better and closer.   I thought a good way to begin would be to reach out and make contact.  A good way, but scary and stressful, too!   But I knew I had to do it.  We're family.   The alternative stinks.

So, I reached out to seven of my loved ones today. Five of the contacts were through email, Facebook, and text ( No, I'm not a scaredy-cat!  Ok, maybe a little).

I sent out five quick notes to say, "hello" and to let them know I was thinking about them. Short, sweet and personalized messages for each person.

The other two contacts were made by phone.  Those conversations were fun, light and lengthy. Yes!

Afterwards, I exhaled deeply, at ease after all was said and done.  I felt hopeful.  Joy was brimming.

My hope is that they each know that they are thought about often and loved much.   My hope is that we can all heal and begin anew.

It's a start. We'll see what happens.

Stay tuned :-)