Belonging?

     I've been learning more about "belonging" recently. I remember a conversation I had with my brother one morning at the breakfast table in my home some years back. I had realized something very important: my parents were married for 2 years before he was born. Then 5 years later I was born. There was 7 years of history in this family, and I only knew snippets of it. I guess I didn't ask many questions, but I felt a bit like a stranger without full knowledge of that history! He began to tell me what he knew and remembered.
     This weekend I spent some time with extended family, and realized how I value so much the relationships I have through that bloodline! I felt like I belonged in a family.
     My own isolationism (is that a word?) has kept me from getting too close to my family sometimes. I have sometimes been too busy trying to cope with all my own problems and pain to enter into anyone else's lives.
     I understand and appreciate being part of an extended family more and more.