“There are exactly as many special occasions in life as we choose to celebrate.” ~Robert Brault
A few years ago it happened, and it couldn’t have come at a better moment.
At the time I was involved in a monthly get together with my cousins. We were a group of eight cousins getting together to talk about family and life in general.
It had started off when my sister was going through a nasty divorce, and one of the cousins came up with the idea of getting together to celebrate my sister’s birthday to bring some cheer into her life.
Once the celebration was under way, we all agreed on how great it would be to make it a once a month gathering of all cousins. And so it began: the once a month ritual of getting together in one of the cousins’ houses for dinner.
We would take turns hosting the event, so that we would each have a turn at being an amazing hostess for a dinner.
We all had different financial situations, so we would go from a very fancy dinner at a very fancy house, to a simple dinner in a simple home where I would find more love and peace than in most.
You could say I was one of the cousins with the middle class lifestyle, yet I opened up my home with the best of intentions, always hoping to give my cousins the best I could.
The first dinner that took place at my home was exciting but also full of anxiety, for I had to prepare my home for the dinner gathering.
I remember making a list of things I wanted to buy. I felt like I was having the president over for dinner—like I had to make my home seem fancy, when in reality it wasn’t. (more…)