Your Love, Your Family

When you see somebody for so long, so many hours out of the day, you start to get use to it. It's like you start to expect that person to show up everyday wherever you are. Part of human nature is habit, so when the time comes to go and do your own thing, to try something new and break that original habit guess what? It's quite an adjustment you can imagine. I guess for a colleague it can be tough for some of us, we leave the people that we have basically grown up with our whole lives to try and be somebody and do something with the lives that they [Our Parents] have given us.
Two days ago, September 18 was my dad's birthday. I called him up and we talked, I told him happy birthday and that I loved him. He started asking me how I was doing, if I needed anything, to be responsible and that sort of thing. What stood out was his emphasis on love and prayer, he told me to pray for all those that I hurt or all those that hurt me and likewise love them. As we were talking, I tried to visualize him talking to me like if he was there in front of me, looking at me straight in the eyes like he always had done. Being away from home, It is a lot easier to listen and take to heart the words that he speaks. It's almost like you wish you had a tape of everything he tried telling you, so you can just pop it right in, push play, and just listen, listen for hours and soak it all in.. I always think of my family when I'm away from home, sometimes it can be a scary thought because anything can happen while your away, good things, bad things, horrible things and even the most amazing things. I hate to think of any of those bad things happen to any of us or of our family members but when I do, for some reason it is proof to me of what I am really called to do. Those thoughts fuel my passion for my vocation, it makes me strive to be above the average person. It's weird not seeing people around telling you what you should do or what you can't do. They have been with us all our lives and now it is different for us. The prize in this, is that we are called by God through all that we miss, to love them even more and respect them even more than what we normally have. It is an invitation if you think about it, to love our elders, our parents, our friends since it was them that really, truly loved us first.