Excerpt
Introduction

We enter the world connected to a family that is forever changed by our arrival. In the vast ocean of our collective stories, the wave I was touched by has made all the difference. All human connections I have discovered are the roads and the journeys of our lives, for we travel together for eternity via the invisible web of our hearts’ memories.

A family can be likened to the cosmos—both have essential structures that can vary in stability, solidness, and size; destiny is derived from their diverse forms. It is love in the human family and gravity in the Universe that can bind form together; each one does so in its own unique way. Love is the gift and the challenge of our existence. In the bosom of a family, we can begin to learn about the true nature of our souls’ purposes, if time is allowed for its emergence. Our lives are woven together by moments in time, the precious structure that undergirds our existence. Purpose can be discovered as we live fully in the moments of our lives—if not then, when?

Who else but my family could have taught me what life was truly about? Our relationship was as close as human relationships can be. Though I could never fully understand my parents’ loving, yet sometimes predictably complicated, relationship, I realized that what they had together was theirs alone, a relationship that needed to be respected for its loving roots. In reality, who amongst us can ever know the nuances of a married couple’s dynamics? My early years were an intense time of learning, and my parents were my most important teachers and models. A child like myself, sensitive to the core, soaked up the atmospherics of a home rather naturally. I grew to understand that there would always be a calm after the storm passed through, and the moments of love that we shared as a family were more than ample for me to nurture others along with myself.