Families are connected by tethers and in our family, our tethers are often stretched to the breaking point. Yet, in our family, they never break and that is because our grandmother and mother taught forgiveness (and you learned it regardless if you wanted to, lol). In alot of ways, forgiveness was a prerequisite to get through childhood, adolescence and adulthood, lol.
I have spent this night replaying moments from our past....fights, things I have done to family members that were uncalled for and vice versa. All the times our individual tethers were trying so desperately to break, yet, somehow held. My mother had a gift (I have chosen to call it that, lol), one minute you could be having the biggest fight of your life with her and ten minutes after hanging up, she would call you back and act like nothing had ever happened. I cannot ever recall hearing her say she was sorry, but then again, Love Story was one of her favorite movies, lol. I always thought that famous quote was silly, until I learned what it referred to....unconditional love. I don't believe that Mom every worried about the condition of her tethers, she knew they were intact and always would be.
Our family loves to the extreme, strong personalities that believe no problem is too big. We vow to fight the monster that threatens our loved ones, in whatever shape he takes. Yet, sometimes, our tethers are stretched to where they begin to rip away, and we panic, our arms begin to flail wildly, terrified that we are alone, unable to keep that tether from breaking. In our exhaustive state, we forget, that a loved one is attached to us and will keep the tether from breaking away completely...they will keep you safe until you can stitch up the rip. In many instances, they will help you sew it up.
I guess what I am trying to say is sometimes life pulls and tears away at our tether and in our panic and fear, we do and say things.....but always remember, the Doherty and Key families are attached with the strongest tethers known to man and will never break. We may not can always get away with pulling a "mom" but when asked, there is always forgiveness, and without asking, there is always love.....always.
