Family Ties

Family Ties

No words can express!

Discovering their Viking heretage, fighting Trolls.

As a family, we have been here at Disney World for about a week having fun.  Grandparents, parents and children all sharing and expressing themselves.  I have to say though, these will be some of the special times that our children will recall when growing up, and look back at with fondness and joy far into adulthood.  They will be times that we, as parents too will also treasure. 

I have to say that I love-watching people in places such as Disney World.  I see parents and grandparents becoming children once again with their little ones, sharing the same experiences, all having the time of their lives.  On the other hand it saddens my heart to also see families so very fractured, not by the events happening around them, but by what their lives are summed up to be in spite of the joy and happiness in their midst.  For some, they have hopes of mending broken relationships by coming here, for others, having dreams of sharing special experiences for the first time. 

Our family sitting on a stone wall, looking up to heavens and sharing memories.

Meeting a gentle, kind and gracious hero.

This is truly a place where dreams can come true, but it is also a place that can expose our lives as well.  I have seen parents and children yelling at each other, parents hitting their children, with both parent and child sighing in complete exhaustion, and even crying.  Why?  I don’t know all the whys; but I do know that the life that we lead before coming here will not change when arriving, it will only be intensified.  If families that are well connected and have a wholesome love and respect for one another before arriving, will also reveal this as well.  If on the other hand, families that do not have these things before coming, the result will only intensify as to what was there before setting foot into the park.

Can problems arise even in the best of relationships here at Disney?  Of course they can and do.  But, it is not in having the absence of problems, but in how we handle them, together.  Car manufacturers put their products under extreme stress conditions before introducing the final product to the public.  These events of extreme duress, reveal to them where the cracks and weak points are.  They then are able to reinforce these points of weakness, and produce a safe automobile for the public.  For our families, being in crowds numbering sometimes in the thousands can also be very stressful, but they also reveal to us the areas that need improving as well.

A princess wanted to meet the older brother as well.

Last night when coming home on the bus I saw something that I had never seen before.  Almost everyone in front of me had a cell phone in his or her hand, and was either playing a game on it or texting someone.  No one was talking to each other!  They each were in their own worlds sitting next to one another and not sharing their joys, or for that matter, disappointments of the day.  Are we coming to a world that is so fractured that we cannot communicate with the person next to us?  Anne noticed before going into the Princess Dinner at the Norwegian restaurant, a family of 17 all waiting in line, either playing on their cells or texting, even grandma was playing a game on her cell.  No one was talking to each other!  Electronic devices are a wonderful tool, but are they revealing to us how fractured some of our families have become?  Obviously, they are not the cause, but only the symptom.  Does putting the cellphones down change our relationships, obviously not in the beginning, but it is a start to making positive changes.  Our relationships with our family and friends are very precious, we can’t let them go and not pay a price.  Places like Disney are not places to discover happiness; they are places to share happiness.  It is not in the event that brings joy and connectedness one to another, it is the time that we invest with one another.  Some of my most precious memories are not in places that are full of elaborate entertainment, but in a simple sandbox playing with our children, or on a crowded Disney bus.  Sitting there, listening to them share with you their dreams, concerns, and joys are memories one will never forget.