When I need a boost, I envision myself in the middle of a circle, consisting of the extended family: Grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, sister, brother and cousins. In this familial embrace I include my family of husband and daughters and sense the love, trust and support offered to each other through the generations in this circle. This makes me feel safe, nurtured and happy.
Our family hosted a similar circle in March 2021. We held a memorial service via zoom, and commemorated a year since my aunt Vivianne’s passing by sharing meaningful stories of life together.
We gathered from all over Europe and Israel and in the hour and a half we shared we crossed borders and connected our hearts, moved to laugh and cry and basked in the love we all share for Vivianne.
It is more than a year since the coronavirus entered our lives and done its social distancing physical trick on us.
Now I get to realize and understand what the real joie de vivre is: Nurturing, supportive, happy human relations.
With the ecological imbalance so prevalent in our world today, I reckon this is our chance to shift gear and collectively change our priorities. Build our happiness with community, social ties, and well connected human networks that feed our hearts and souls.
Pay less attention to the external material world and pay more attention to cultivating nurturing and sustaining friendships.
Βuild bridges of support and trust and friendship among us just like my family’s elders did.
By focusing on relations rather than possessions, we live lighter on this world! Our more down-to-earth-lifestyle focusing on family ties, fostering friendships, community, and inner growth makes life friendlier for our children.
Weaving nets of relatedness, nets of friendship, compassion and support, soothes my soul and nurtures my spirit.
The warmth and vibe these relations generate in our hearts make us all more resilient to hardship.
Yet at times hardship does hit. We then realize the value of our loving relations! We are not alone, but have a circle of close family and friends who care for us, nurturing and sustaining us through the storm.
From Jerusalem with love,
Yvette Nahmia-Messinas