Thanks to my family

While having an interesting discussion about religion and the meaning of death with my MC mates at lunch, I discovered how lucky I was having such a "not fitting the model" family. They were all talking about their Catholic traditions but Bee, and how they were taught since they were children how to pray, behave and stablish a relation with their churches. They seem to be comfortable with the fact their family is Catholic, their traditions are Catholic and in fact they are getting ready for Christmas celebrations in advance. I really like they are convinced about their believings, but I felt sort of relieved thinking about my childhood and remembering the freedom I enjoyed having the chance to choose amongst the different believings my family have.

I grew up into a family composed by four different "ethnics": English, Turkish, Jewish and Hispanics; and therefore four different ways of seeing the life, develop a history and conceptions about spiritualism and meanings of life. One side of my family is Catholic, the other Jewish and a very little part Protestant. I was never forced to go to any of the temples or cults of each of these religions but I was always invited. I really enjoyed listening to my parents, my grandparents, my uncles, my aunts, etc talking about the way they conceive life. The best part of all this was during December when the whole family gather together celebrating Christmas, Chanukah but always in a "let's get together" sense than "let's show off our believings".

Now I feel I am not religious, not because I don't like them. In fact I really like some traditions that are born from religious ceremonies. I really enjoy seeing my mother going to the church, my father enjoying the discussions around God and its logic with his temple-mates and my aunt following her traditions with her community. It's not the look cute but they really reflect their believings as a lifestyle.

I really thank my family because of giving me that freedom of decission. I grew up and now I follow always what my father said: "value the difference. The diversion is what make us unique".