WHO'S GOT YOUR BACK?

When the chips are down, when the going gets tough, who do you turn to? Who can you rely on? Who has your back? Who is your ‘Wingman’?

Most of us can think of someone who has been there for us recently. It surprisingly may not be the same person who was there at another time, but all this shows you is that sometimes we need to take a good 360 degree look around us.

It’s a strange feeling to realize that someone we always thought was behind us and would be with us for the rest of our lives, really is not going to be someone we can count on. All the signs were there, but luckily, till now, we never had to find out the hard way that we were wrong.

Relatives, as some of us have recently found out, turn out, even going back a generation or more, to still be annoyed or indignant about something that some other relative, DID or DID NOT do, many, many years ago. I now say that I refuse to fight the previous generations battles; I have enough of my own, thank you very much, without taking on something from a previous generation.

I was, for example, astonished to hear that one Cousin years ago had called the Police to evict another Cousin from their home in the U.S.  Meanwhile, other people of my own generation no longer speak to one of more of their Siblings. Oddly some of them seemed to be the mostly closely knit families when we were growing up.

Since my own Parents couldn’t please any of their relatives when I was growing up, I didn’t expect much support from our relatives either. This has proven to be a good decision, now perhaps more than ever and seems to be running up to the present time.

Disappointing about the relatives? Yes, a bit, but not as much as realizing that somewhere along the road, the Friend, Lover, Partner or Spouse, we thought we could count on, isn’t going to be there and has really let us down.

After reflecting on this I suggest that it might be a good idea for each of us to take that look around you and carefully consider that you may have been assuming that the past with someone applies to today. Maybe instead, it’s time to thank those who really are and continue to be present and appreciate and acknowledge with a grateful heart those supporting us now.