Family Time

  What traditions do you have that remind you of family? Sunday afternoon conversations between adults while children played together? The Sunday afternoon football game? Dinner around the table? Perhaps having your family come to see you while playing your sport or producing a school play? Did you all gather around for a good game of family Phase 10 or would you all only get together during holidays when extended family came for a visit?
  What values did these bring to our lives, and the lives of our family? Did you find a certain atmosphere that you noticed as you grew older; did you keep those for your own family or did you invent new ones?
  What family traditions are worth keeping and holding onto as our countries shift our focuses from family-oriented to community-oriented? Perhaps this was inevitable as two things happened. One, our population grew so much that instead of a town or village where everyone knew everybody we now have more people than possible for that anymore. Two, with the development of technology our lives have gotten so much more fast paced. We no longer place priority with our families. At least, that is the general feeling that we are beginning to be told. Everyone for themselves. Is this what caused all the other empires to fall? Overpopulation and development of resources and technology beyond what the family structure could endure?
  Will we suffer from attrition because of our increasing lack of moral standards and lack of family togetherness?
  I know I really enjoyed my childhood. I have so many memories and as my girlfriend and I sat today and recalled some of those fond memories, I only hope and sincerely pray that I will be able to provide those same kinds of experiences for my eventual children.
  Make sure you make time for your family and those closest to you. Without their presence in our lives - and likewise our presence in their own, in a meaningful way - we'll be the first to know when we look up and realize we may have isolated ourselves.
  Don't be the first to know. Find someone whom you love; gather your family - and spend some time together. Don't hesitate.