Photo by Craig Adderley on Pexels.
← CHAPTER OVERVIEW
What makes a family?
Dear Creatrix,
What do you think so far? How does it feel to get more in touch with the feelings, thoughts, ideas, fears or expectations you have around your family?
Today, we will take a step back so that we can change our perspective a little, and look at what makes a family in general, in our culture, in different cultures, and in our imagination.
Have you thought about this?
What did your family look like growing up?
And what does your family look like now?
Is it the same? Similar? Or completely different?
What other family constellations do you know, apart from your own?
In your country and culture, and in others?
Just take a moment to think about this, before you continue to read.
Photo by João Jesus on Pexels.
I grew up in a quite unusual setting, given the place where I was born.
In many places around the world, it is quite common for more than one generation to live together, but where I grew up, in Hamburg, Germany, it really wasn’t.
Yet, I grew up in the house that my great-grandparents built, together with my great-grandma, my grandmother, my parents, my brother, a few birds, three rabbits and a dog.
At least for the first 14 years of my life – then things started to change.
I’m sharing this with you because often we think that because we grew up and experienced things in a certain way, we also have to continue to live that way – or we create something in opposition to what we had and what we didn’t like or what harmed us – but we also have other options, and to explore these we have to look into our hearts and use our imagination to see and find out what might actually be the best option for ourselves.
Are you curious?
From left to right: my great-grandma, my grandmother, my mum & brother, me.