Close-Knit Families: A Blessing or a Hidden Risk?

The word is a very complicated place to be and to do things; there are times when someone will do things in a particular way and it'll favour them, and when someone else gives the same a shot, it won't turn out well. And in other cases others will do it in a different way, and when you try to follow their own patterns, it still won't favour you. Know that that teaches us to learn to know what works for us and stick by it rather than trying to adopt someone else's style. But then beyond the physical and going somewhat more spiritual, there are things that happen and you just help but wonder what the way to go is.

There's this family that's very close to ours; in fact, we are somewhat related, and one thing I admire about this family is how literally all the children of the parents live within the same neighbourhood/town. In my opinion, their staying close to each other serves as an avenue for them to not only counsel themselves wisely but also challenge one another in talking them through the right steps that'll bring about growth to their life journey. This particular family for instance has most of the children doing pretty well, however the downside to this level of togetherness is how people who knew each one of them when they had nothing, start envy them to the where some even go dark with voodoo trying to bring them down, one of which lead to the death of their mother, who happens to be my aunt.

Today after her burial service, I was speaking with one of her sons, and during our discussion, he couldn't hinstance,tell me how he envied the children of my ow; however,, especially in regard to how many of us stay in different states apart from each other and how wnothing startrenvyingfor anoththe pointto monitor our growth and the like. He went on to talk about how their own sledng within the same community brings about the challenges, and to be honest, I understand because I believe there's voodoo, and I've seen it in display, and I don't pray I'm a victim of their power.

While I understand his point, I know staying apart and far from each other also has its downside. Take for instance as they stay close to each other, they often patronise each other's businesses and specialities, making the money remain in the family, unlike us who stay apart and need the service of something your siblings can do, but you know patronising them will be more costly due to the distance. Take for instance, I want to build. In my house, my brother is a bricklayer; he would definitely do the job better than anyone else's, but the cost of him and his crew's transport fare alone to and from is enough to pay for half of what would get the job done to a substantial stage.

In the end, I know there's nothing we can do to escape the monitoring eyes of the evil ones, or God would just choose to protect us and grant us success on all sides. At the end of our conversation, we talked about how it's better if one just limits how one integrates with extended families, as that's usually the genesis of most issues, even though I disagree with that claim, because enemies can arise from anywhere, it could even be from a total stranger or someone as close to you as your skin. We just need to be watchful and vigilant.

All photos are mine.