BONUS SHORT: Celebrating Family in All Its Forms

[00:00:02] Hi everyone, and welcome to the Monomyth Diaries. I'm Mandi.

[00:00:06] And I'm Karen, and we'll be your hosts. We're glad you're joining us.

[00:00:14] Welcome back for another edition of Monomyth Diaries Shorts.

[00:00:18] Karen, I actually had a listener approach me recently in person and ask me about a word that

[00:00:24] I used during one of my previous episodes. So if you haven't actually listened to my monomyth,

[00:00:30] you know, go back, have a listen. There's a part of it where I talk about my belly button family,

[00:00:35] and that was her question. And she's like, Mandi, I heard you talk about your belly button family.

[00:00:39] What does that actually mean? And I realized that, yeah, I never really elaborated as to what

[00:00:44] the phrase for me, belly button family means. For me, belly button family just is my biological

[00:00:52] family, the people that I am blood related to and that come out of my belly button.

[00:00:58] I actually learned the term belly button family from you as well. So that was such a fascinating

[00:01:03] term. But it really helps to be able to go, oh, now I know how to explain this phenomenon. Like,

[00:01:11] I was totally familiar with the concept, but, you know, I don't know how to put a name on that. So

[00:01:15] belly button family is such a great line to use. Yeah, belly button family. Yeah, because, you know,

[00:01:21] families are complicated. Yes. For me, I was born into, you know, my genetic family, right? And I love

[00:01:27] my belly button family. Don't get me wrong. I love my belly button family. But I have been sort of

[00:01:31] removed from them for a while. Geographically, we're just, you know, we're not close together

[00:01:35] anymore. And my mother and my father have passed. Most of my belly button family that's left are

[00:01:42] people like my brothers, my sisters, my nieces, my nephews. But again, they're all living across

[00:01:47] the country. I'm not close to them. So over the years, I have sort of made my own family. I have

[00:01:52] my Al-Anon family. And again, if you haven't listened to my monomyth, if you want to go back and have a

[00:01:57] listen, I talk about what Al-Anon is and who all these people are. And you know, they've really

[00:02:01] and truly become my family, whereas my first sponsor and her husband are actually my son's

[00:02:07] grandparents. They've been there all of his life. I have my married family, the people that I'm married

[00:02:14] to, all the Joneses, which I'm very lucky to have. I also have my expat family. For listeners who are

[00:02:22] unfamiliar with that term expats, like your expatriate. So we've lived all over the country,

[00:02:27] which I know we have that in common. You've lived around the world as well. So those people

[00:02:33] become your family. Yeah. For example, when I was living in Brazil, you don't have any actual family

[00:02:40] there and neither do they. And so you spend all your holidays together, all your weekends together,

[00:02:46] you travel together, you see each other all the time and you become very close, very fast.

[00:02:50] Yes. Yeah. And you keep in contact with them forever. And even though you may only live with

[00:02:54] them for a year or two, you just get super close. I also have a very good friend of mine that I grew

[00:03:02] up with. And I talk actually about her a little bit in one of the previous episodes as well.

[00:03:07] And she and I have such a unique relationship. We've known each other for a long time. We're

[00:03:11] probably about 10, 11, 12 when we met. Her name is Melinda. She's my very best friend in the

[00:03:16] whole wide world. And I still talk to her almost every day. Wow. And she's just one of the kind

[00:03:23] of people that because we've grown up together, we know each other's deepest, darkest secrets.

[00:03:29] I can be happy and giddy with her. I can call her crying. She, yeah, I'm so grateful that I have her.

[00:03:36] I think of her as a sister. And I know we were just joking around, you know, there's that phrase,

[00:03:41] you have your brother from another mother and you have a sister from another mister. Well, she's my

[00:03:46] sister from another mister. Yeah. So yeah, I just thought that that was fun. And that I thought we

[00:03:51] definitely should explain Belly Button Family because I'm sure it'll come up again in other

[00:03:56] episodes as people tell their journeys. Yes, absolutely. And then also the concept of like

[00:04:01] you were sharing, but you're found families like with three Al-Anon, you're at the expats

[00:04:06] and as well as being married, like literally choosing a family to marry into because that is

[00:04:12] super key when you're considering that kind of relationship. And what I love about the concept

[00:04:17] of a found family is you get to pick, you don't get to pick and choose the family you're born into,

[00:04:22] but you can pick and choose the people you're going to spend time with and those that you allow

[00:04:26] to influence you as well as how you're going to influence them as well. And the thing is,

[00:04:31] I found from my own personal journey in, you know, navigating found families because like you

[00:04:37] having to live, you know, be geographically relocated and then finding people that who is

[00:04:44] going to be your emergency contacts, who's going to be like, you know, in the event of a crisis,

[00:04:48] who do you call or who are you going to be a support to when that person is experiencing crisis

[00:04:55] and be able to jump in? It's also really key and important to be selective of, you know,

[00:05:02] who are people that are healthy for you? Who are people that are going to help you to be at your best

[00:05:06] and vice versa? Who are you going to help shine and help to be there for them and that you can have

[00:05:14] this incredible, simpatical relationship? Right. I love that you call it a found family.

[00:05:20] That's not a phrase that I'd ever heard before either. So learning from you, I now can say,

[00:05:26] well, I have my belly button family and I have my found family. I love that so much.

[00:05:30] Karen, thank you so much. Thank you for sharing your story.

[00:05:33] All right. And we look forward to hearing from all of our listeners about stories about your

[00:05:37] found families or your belly button families. If you want to share something great that you've

[00:05:42] learned from them or something you've had to grow through, please send it to

[00:05:46] monomythdiaries at gmail.com or through our website, www.monomythdiaries.com. We look forward to hearing

[00:05:53] from you. Please share, hit like, subscribe, and follow us on YouTube and wherever you get your

[00:06:01] podcasts. Feel free to email us at monomythdiaries at gmail.com with your monomyth and keep the

[00:06:08] conversations going. Until next time, heroes, let's journey together through stories.