Ode to my family

My family is like a tornado, a tsunami, a force of nature. Now hold on a minute, before you all reach for your umbrellas and raincoats and try to hightail it out of here... Let me explain, I mean this in the most positive way imaginable. I guess a more accurate description of my nearest and dearest would be not just a tornado but the result of rainbow hitting a tornado, the most beautiful and vivacious thing ever to be created. Each member with their own unique hue and their own ways of spinning the weather vain.

I was privileged enough to spend a month with these sparkly people and now that I’m no longer with them It’s pretty obvious that it's not just the chill of the wicked winter weather that makes my bones ache.

I look around at the people here, and granted February is not the best of feel good months, but still their faces are drawn and lifeless the chatter on the tram when it happens is negative and the silence that fills its void when it’s not around is deafening.

I’m not saying that my family are always chipper, but tornados have a habit of moving things, of getting things done. When I think about my sisters, my cousins, my nieces, and nephews, I feel an enormous sense of pride. Each and every one of them has a life that they can be proud of, a life that they created for themselves (those who can not tie their own shoelaces yet are exempt from this category but I’m the proudest aunty on earth anyway). I feel that I can confidently say that I would be friends with every single one of them even there was no DNA involved.

None of us come from extremely affluent roots, but I believe that our elders gave us everything they could possibly spare and in some cases even more than that. I’m not just talking about material things, I’m talking about the other things, the important things that help us when we’re down, or give us a nudge in the right direction. Sometimes, I would sit there in the metropolis that some of us call home (AKA Massey) and watch them. Watch the way they spoke to each other, the way they listened to each other, the way the rolled around on the grass with a bunch of four year olds, acting like a bunch of four year olds and having the times of their lives while doing so. They make it all look so easy (I know that it’s not) But I was once again reminded that it really is the simple things in life that count, maybe all we really do need is love…

Of course I’m not naive and I know that as catchy as that tune is there’s a lot more to it. I guess that if I were to go completely soppy on you (I’m pretending that, that hasn’t already happened… my blog, my rules) I would say that love is like super glue, the thing that keeps it all together, or a sticking plaster, the thing that makes it all better (well, to the ones in the can’t tie their own shoe lace category anyway).

When you sit down to dinner with my family, enjoy the silence it’s the only time it’s gonna happen while they’re awake; but while you're doing that check out what else is there… amongst the spaghetti sauce and the clinking cutlery there is …. LOVE.

I felt it all the time when I was in the big A (apple has been taken so I will have to settle for the first letter) and I guess this is just a really long winded way of saying thank you, I appreciate you, I love you. For those on the other side of the Tasman in little “b” (Things over there just seem much smaller…) I extend my sentiments to you too. I have such fond memories of you all, whether it be a day at Wynnum Beach, or a pizza laden Outrageous Fortune marathon on Halloween.

My family give me a sense of belonging and kindle the drive in me to succeed. They make me want to move things; they make me want to be that ant, that ant that can move the rubber tree plant. Even if I can’t do it on my own anyone who has ever left sugar on the table knows that ants are very seldom alone.

Kia ora guys. Ka kite ano….