Who do you look forward to seeing who consistently challenges your thinking?

While celebrating my nieces wedding on the Oregon Coast, I was able to be with my extended family, the grooms family from Texas and my niece’s friends.  So many different ways we live our lives, yet the conversations were warm, open and exploratory.

As the groom’s brother and I made fruit salad, he told me about life on his ranch outside of Austin. Every weekend his family members compete in horse shows. This includes one of his older daughters who has graduated out of 4H competitions continues to participate as a coach. As anyone knows who has horses, two kids had to stay back to run the ranch while the rest of the family flew to Oregon for the wedding.

The bride and groom shared their experiences of attending Burning Man. The bride described the gifting culture and how people give coffee or art classes or play the piano and get food and drink from others. In a desert where the super fine dust coats them and everything around them, everyone builds their housing creating villages and art installations that are torn down or burned at the end of the week. They are fascinated by the creativity, art and alternative way of living and the temporality of it all.  This year, there were 75,000 people in the desert for a week. It is one of the largest cities in Nevada for that week.

Family can be the best place to learn and to challenge your thinking yet for some it too often turns into angry disagreement and disrespect. You know who to talk to and who to avoid.  Yet when you hold the intention to appreciate and learn, it can be a wonderful place to work on being curious.  Try it at your next family gathering or even at home today.