Brent Maze: Take some family time – The Selma Times‑Journal

This weekend I’m taking some time to go to a family reunion in Cincinnati, Ohio to see my 90-year-old Aunt Chris and some cousins ​​I haven’t had a chance to see in before the COVID pandemic.

It’s probably been about eight years since I’ve been to Ohio. I have seen some of my family since then as my mother’s side of the family has a much larger reunion in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. That reunion has been going on for about 75 years for every year except for the year of COVID, 2020.

I can’t wait to see many of them, who were really young when I last met them. Those around my age are sure starting to show their age. I don’t have the hair I used to and I’ve probably put on a few pounds, but it’s great to get to reconnect with them.

I know many of you have family reunions around here and around the country that you will be going to. It may be around a Christmas or Thanksgiving holiday. It might be a small one where you just hang out, cook and play games.

Either way, I hope you get a chance to go when you get the chance. I sincerely hope our family doesn’t end up where we only see each other at funerals. With some of the people we see like that, we always say, “We have to meet sometime,” but then that’s the end of the conversation.

The only way to guarantee we don’t is to plan a reunion of some kind. This could be your high school or college class reunion. Maybe it’s a work reunion where many of the former employees come back, visit and get to know each other’s families.

As we get older, we never know how many more times we will be able to spend time with each other. We won’t be able to make up stories about how you managed to get over your anger at the card masters. Maybe there was a time when someone said something that was either really funny or lifted your heart.

Maybe it’s something like sitting around the piano in the living room playing songs from either the church hymnal or pulling out your guitar and playing them late at night on the front porch.

It’s all those little moments that we share and they are some of the most important moments in your life.

And those moments aren’t just with your blood relatives, they’re for your neighbors’ extended family, your church family, your work family, and any other group of friends you have. Nothing can replace time spent together and that’s what I’m looking forward to this weekend.

Brent Maze is the editor of The Selma Times-Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].