Family (un)Ties

by Baxter E. Hall

I've been trying to locate many of my family members for the past few weeks and have started to make some headway. I've always focused on what was in front of me and not worried too much about the past and things that were already done. So as I get older, I realize that there are many holes in my story and as question was answered, two others were asked (It's like carrying laundry and socks keep falling out of your hands). Being of African-American descent, it already limits the amount of information that you can acquire (Because of that whole slavery thing).

That sucks, but couple that with the fact that there are family members in the same metro area that I don't know, there's a bit of sadness that starts to creep in. It has effected my sleep, my mood and view of many family members (Not to mention the fact that my wife and I could use more money and we are still waiting to get pregnant for the first time). So I've been somewhat depressed, to say the least.

Ok, Good News: I re-connected with one of my cousins from my mother's side of the family. We both lost our moms at a young age (Although she lost her mom even younger than I did) and we've always felt a disconnect between ourselves and the rest of our family. Our families didn't do a good job of keeping us in contact with one another and we just went along with our separate lives. And although we couldn't bring our moms back, maybe we could have help comfort one another.

I realized that my cousin enjoys writing just like I do (She's already written her first book so I have some catching up to do), has a blog (I have 2 blogs, but big deal, she's already written a book!) and she's also done some rapping and singing. It was crazy to realize that not only do we share some of the same pains, we also have similar interests.

We both know there are many questions we have, but we now have each other to accompany us on our journey. There will be some more sad times, but I am looking forward to coming up on the other end smelling like a rose. Hey, you don't make it this far by letting a little sadness deter you from your journey. I'm ready to tie up some of these loose ends.