How important is family?

My Family tree is as beautiful as a Christmas tree. And every member of my family is neatly placed like the presents rich people place around their Christmas trees and gather round to open on Christmas morning.

When I count my blessings, I count every member of my family twice. Does anyone feel the same way? Let me tell you about them.

Look, it is easy to displace family and how important they are because of the challenges we tend to face with them. But, you cannot do life without family. Most of the world’s richest men will tell you that one of the things they regret is, while chasing money, they neglect family.

My Father- a tall round man in his mid fifties who is as energetic as a teenage boy. The most thrilling thing about my father is, you cannot lie to him. He sees ten miles ahead and is the typical explanation of the African proverb that says, “what an elder sees sitting, a young boy cannot see even if he climbs an Iroko tree”.

He can act like he bought your lie but he’ll let you know at the appropriate time that he didn’t. Besides being a provider even to his grown up children, he’s a protector. We misunderstood him for being over protective.

And it irritates us, my siblings and everyone who lives in our house. What’s the use? We are not your prisoners. When I was a teenager, a friend had told me about the amazing things he was doing and had mentioned that if his dad were alive, he wouldn’t freely go to the places he went and meet the people he met.

I wished my dad would also disappear, even if it’s temporarily. As I grew older, I understood him better. Dad loves us. He wants the best for us. I know lots of teenagers who are being restricted feel the same way too. As you get older and become more in charge of your life, you’ll realize that the freedom you think you are being denied comes with a lot of responsibilities and then you want to become a child again! A daddy’s girl or boy.

My mother- she’s my emotional banker. Let’s begin with times when I just needed someone to understand how I felt about being wrongly judged, or unnecessarily criticized, I told her about it. She would listen and tell me not to let the things I hear bother me. Everyone has an opinion but not all opinions matter. Sometimes, when I really need to go out and I know my dad won’t let me, my mom becomes my ally. The beautiful thing is, all of these still came with scolding when it was necessary.

What role do my siblings play? So many roles. But understanding them was teaching myself to be able to handle people with different personalities. We come from the same parents but we have different personalities. Different perspectives to life issues and different temperament.

If you say family isn’t important I dare to ask you,
Where's the first place you call when you are dead broke?

Where’s the first place you run to when you are heartbroken and need to heal?

Where’s the first place you check when the world is literally tormenting you?

Where’s the first place you go to find peace?

This is the icing on this beautiful cake we have been baking. Family can be related by blood, and other times, strangers become family. I smile as I write this. Knowing well that technology has given us the privilege to grow communities with total strangers we can relate so well with. Strangers who become family. Who become your tribe.

This is a picture of me taken by my brother, a proof that we need family even to get great shots