We are family.

Things have been a bit quiet here on the ol' jog'n'blog this week.
I've been up in sunny Queensland soaking up some sunshine and family time.

My family.

My family is a close one. We are knitted and entwined and monkey locked in ways that i am not sure all familys are.
My immediate family (five of us) plus the ring-ins (my gorgeous brother in laws) plus my niece and nephew (AKA my favourite people in the world) all ventured into Boonah for my dads brothers birthday, which essentially turned into a family reunion of sorts.

Once there, we drank and laughed, sat around a bon fire, chased bulls in the paddock, got reintroduced to cousins, met other cousins for the first time, slept under the stars and talked. Oh the talking! You would NOT believe how much we talked. About life, about love, about each other, about ourselves, turning over the pebbles of truths and history, polishing them with "and i remember when you were born"s and "I really, really love you"s.

My family.

Sure, there are the demons that have weaved their way into the fabric. The aunty who is really my cousin who is actually my friend. My uncles attempted murder charge. The sick to my stomach things my cousin endured as a child. Affairs. Fist fights. Questions which go unanswered. But no one has been kicked out. The family sits like a living, pulsating entity that you can choose to be in or out of. You can immerse yourself there and never leave or just take a sip now and then for strength. It can be draining, inspiring, frustrating, wonderful. It is all these things.

My family.

4 Aunties and 4 uncle. They ask about my marriage. They understand marriage. Between them there have been 8. So they know about marriage. The also know about divorce. There is the advice, the "we never liked him anyway"s, the tears shed over the sheer injustice of love gone wrong. They see me in my best possible light. They see potential. They see strength. They see themselves.
5 children run around the property, shoeless, nappyless, slapped with sunscreen and not much else. There are no high chairs here. The babies eat in the crook of their grandfathers arms. Take afternoon naps squished on a couch between their fathers and uncles. They play and fight and play and fight and just as my Aunties see themselves in me, i see myself in my niece. My dad accidently calls her by my name. Around we go again.

And we all look the same. Strong genes forcing broad shoulders upon the boys. My cousin is like my brother from another mother. He calls me "stunning" once he realises we could pass for twins, then cackles out the same laugh as his father. My sister and I meet each others eyes. I mistake my aunty for my grandmother, out of the corner of my eye, more than once.

We are family. The threads all looping together.
There are no loose ends.