Pope Francis in Philly, The City of Brotherly Love

Well Pope Francis has come and gone. Even as non-Catholics, he reminded us here in the USA that family is everything. Family is the key to happiness, success and virtue.

Photo shared from catholicmedianetwork.org

It is a bit a difficult to connect to this statement when many I know, include myself came from very broken family structures. There sometimes is no fixing or mending, but merely trying to figure out ways to start new ones. However, in the end when family is damaged, all involved are broken. This bond is among the hardest to mend.

Many outsiders may judge, because perhaps they came from that strong perfect structure that the Pope spoke of. Maybe they just never seen or felt what broken means or what it even looks like. It is real, and it is a daily struggle. We all write our futures by our actions, but sometimes our futures are altered by the actions of others. Perhaps this is part of "everything happens for a reason". I don't know. In the end, I truly feel that a broken family structure is the worst pain and anxiety that many in the world carry with them each and every single day.

So, if you took anything from the Pope this weekend, take away the idea of freeing your mind from judgement. There is no need for you to judge and add more stress and anxiety to folks that already suffer from their own struggles inside. Let's love and respect one another the same way we would want to be treated. Let us refocus on the definition of family, as we all know it is not always blood relations.