Where's My Family?

I hit the post button last Friday on my Destination Community post and looked at the communities I had listed - uh oh! What happened to my blood family members... if my mom reads this will she be offended?? Well, being real, I think that many community support structures don't include biological families as core members in this postmodern world any longer. Life has changed a lot in the past 50 years; and, quite frankly, most of us don't live near our blood families to have them as part of our core community support group(as "family" had been for centuries!). There are exceptions; however, you usually have to drive or fly to your biological family's home base, or have them fly to you for relational bonding experiences these days. And, as always, there are both good and bad things about that!

This week, I am also experimenting with different features of this blog site and working to improve my technology skills in this Google world(which, my post-50 Guggenheim-wired brain struggles to embrace most days!) So, today I am going to post a bubble chart visual of what my support communities look like from last weeks post. I am also thinking about ways to bring my blood family into a closer bubble. I will say, we gave my 78-year-old mom an ipad for Christmas and it has totally improved our family connectivity! Being an even older Guggenheim-wired brain-type and struggling with aging self-entitlement of the way things "should be", my mom was not open to embracing anything related to technology. However, since she has received this magic tablet(ha!), she now sees videos of Rachel's swim meets and pictures from our family vacation while we are still on vacation. And, I now hear from her almost daily. Her openness to this tool has greatly improved our family connectedness!

So, below is my chart! I want to conclude by asking all you... How do you stay connected with your biological families in this "Destination Community", travel-oriented, post modern world? Are they a core part of your community support groups?... I would love to hear your thoughts on this!