The ironic part of me writing this post about family right now is that I’m not even with what you would assume to be “traditional family” other than my sister. Every year my boyfriends family has an annual 4th of July cookout. This is my second year going and I love it! Every time I attend this cookout, I just find myself looking at everyone, all the strangers that smile at me when they see me. Or introduce themselves even though I’m such an unfamiliar face. I feel so loved and I probably only know the names of a handful of people in a sea of at least 40. Then I got the chance to reflect. How did this make me feel, how was my heart and soul feeling?
To keep it short, my heart and soul were happy. The people who seemed to be strangers to me were embracing me and loving me and genuinely wanting to get to know me, what I do, and what I’m about. It feels so good! This is something that I think is such a simple task to bring into my own life. It’s easy to get all caught up in our own lives. The moves we need to make. The people we need to meet. That we forget about connecting with each other. It’s so easy to go through your life just thinking about who you should meet to make connections. The funny thing is, when we meet these people, we’re not thinking about them. We’re thinking of ourselves, the potential these people have to change OUR lives.
I want to pose one question: what if we just tried to get to know people just because? We picked a random person on the street or in the park or at a party and tried to get to know them. Not because we want the connections they have. Not because we think they can do something for us. What if we tried to get to know them just because. Now when I say get to know someone I don’t mean just talk to them and zone out. Genuinely try to see what their life is like. See how they think, what they feel. Try to listen more than you talk. I have a feeling if we all tried to do this once a week we could learn so much about life, about people, and about ourselves. Go out and listen and see where that gets ya:)