OUR STORY

“A people without the knowledge of their past, their origins, and their culture is like a tree without roots.” Irish Proverb

Our family story is a journey of many lifetimes woven together from the past, the present, and those who are to come. I think it safe to say that all of us, at one time or another in our lives, ask ourselves three questions:  

The Past – Where did I come from?

The Present – Why am I here?

The Future – What is going to happen to me?

The bonds that are formed when life is given from parents to their children provide the foundation of a family and the family unit is the key factor in a flourishing  society—People have a basic desire to know where they came from and how they got to where they are today. Family helps satisfy a deep need to understand how we fit into the broader world around us. Family history is more than just a collection of single family threads passing through time. It truly is a journey of many lifetimes woven together from the past, the present and the future.

By developing a set of common values, those things which they collectively value, believe in and treasure, a family begins to build a strong foundation upon which to build a solid life.

Family is where we learn the social graces of loyalty, cooperation, and trust. It is where we learn to love ourselves and each other, to bear one another’s burdens, to find meaning in our life and to give purpose to others’ lives, and to feel the value of being part of something greater than ourselves.

There is a universal desire for oneness among people—we want to belong. It’s why we collaborate, support common causes, cheer for sports teams, feel nationalism; it’s why we build villages, towns, and cities. For the fortunate among us, that desire began with loving parents and siblings in a home that was equal parts refuge and laboratory for experimenting with our potential, our beliefs, and our identity.

God sends each of us to earth helpless. It’s a given that we must depend on our family from the beginning. By design, we are given a family to provide for us, to protect us, and to prepare us for the challenges we’ll face in the years ahead.

We’re all familiar with a family’s ideal role. It is at home that we learn to walk and to talk. We share expressions of love. It is through family life we learn (purposefully or inadvertently) the habits, emotional responses, obligations, and values that will begin to shape our adult selves.  Part of belonging to a family means we each step up to help each other. While our first role in a family is as a dependent child, the part we play is never small—and it continues to grow in scope and importance as we mature.

It is our duty, even a sacred responsibility, to care for those in our family.

Karen & Mike McCloskey  April 12, 2018