Why is it so Hard for Families to Stay Connected?

It's been two years since our last family get together on moms side of the family. That get together was to honor my grandmothers life at her funeral. Since then, contact has been minimal. Now another tragedy has us talking again.

I received word last Friday that my uncle had been diagnosed with cancer again. At first, it appeared that it was treatable and while it wouldn't be an easy road, recovery was a possibility. Yesterday we learned that wasn't the case. He's now at home and Hospice is coming in to help.

This news suddenly has my cousins and I talking again. Which is nice, but I have to ask myself: why do we wait for a family tragedy to talk to each other? We all seem to get along. We all seem to have fun when we're together. There's no bad blood between any of us that I know (Greg has long since gotten over me ratting him out for dipping snuff when we were twelve!). How hard it it for families to stay connected in a world where we all have smartphones, Facebook, Skype and so many other ways to communicate?

I guess the easiest way to solve this problem is to stop waiting for the other members of the family to reach out and do the reaching out myself. Right? It all starts with me. Maybe I just answered my own question. Maybe, all it would take is for ONE person in the family to start reaching out and stop waiting for the others to.

Tonight I pray for my Uncle Ken, Aunt Penny and their children and grandchildren. I pray for Gods comfort and peace. I also pray my cousins and I can find the time to connect with each other during times when there isn't a family tragedy and the courage to start reaching out to them instead of waiting for them to reach out to me.