The Accidental Family

There is family by birth, family by adoption, family by community, family by belief, and every once in awhile- the accidental family. Accidentally family is conceived out of circumstances that place individuals together unexpectedly and who inturn, become family.

This occurred while working on a recent project that placed Greg into our lives over a year ago through a fateful meeting at the library. Four of us spent the week traveling in order to capture Greg’s deep family roots, and in the process Greg became more than a client...together we became the accidental family. We termed our adventure, “Questing,” and found ourselves in scary haunted houses, a sketchy “Irish bar” that had nothing to do with the Irish, the cold and crisp coastline off MA, wandering the streets of Boston, and trying every mom and pop restaurant around.

You can't plan moments like these and it's refreshing to stand back and realize you're not always in control of your story- sometimes it leads you to unexpected places and people.

The powerful force of family is not confined to a relational level. Family is also a container for legacy and heritage. Family heritage is like our forefathers who sat beneath the canopy of stars, as flames dances in their eyes, their words, music that wove together stories of origin and tradition. Stories that birthed history and history that birthed heritage. Stories are more than just about entertainment or drama. They are ways we remember our role in a much bigger heritage, a way for our children to pass onto their children who and what we represent.

We need a sense of place in our world. A sense that we are not all kings and gods of our little lives, but we are members of a greater story, a story not made of many people but one family.