Good Morning, Family

Photo via Our Labor of Love.

Photo via Jaquilyn Shumate Photography.

I'm up early today. Whispers of spring are here, just outside the window.

The sun breaks through, the sparrows flit and emit their fleeting chirps. I've got the radio on with the kinds of songs I only listen to when I'm alone. 

I've been thinking about family lately. The progression of love. The meaning of the relationships we build, and how we sometimes tell ourselves we don't really need them, and then realize how much we do.

I think of my girls. My bridal party. Grandmothers. Cousins and friends. Mom. Stepmom. The women I've spent my life looking up to, the women who have looked up to me over the years, the women I couldn't be me without. 

All subsequent photos via Jaquilyn Shumate Photography. 

I think of siblings. How precious the bond between a brother and a sister, a sister and her twin, a bond that would be suffering to lose. Stretched so distantly from each other; needed so much. I think about the joy of a phone call with my brother or sister, how hearing about their lives always cheers me up.

Who wants to come visit once spring hits Chicago, eh?

I think of my nephew and how every time I see a new picture, it feels like I've missed years.

Families are precious these days, it seems. Sometimes in the early morning, the house quiet, I think of the family I have and the ones I hope to one day grow in a world of love.

How have you loved your family lately? Any of you out there starting your own little families?