It takes a village, all residents invited to participate

"It takes a village", said one Darden cousin to Moi. She sure is right about that.

Last summer I was blessed to attend the Darden family reunion. During a presentation I was making to the family, I dropped a comment about how cousin Marilyn was so good at cold calls, even walking up to the front door of cousins she has not met, striking up a conversation and getting to know them. I personally find this a bit difficult, not the conversation part, anyone who knows me knows I seldom lack for something to say. But, the cold call, the knocking on the door part, well, I have trouble with that.

At this point in my presentation, I hear the words, from the back of the room, "It takes a village, Carol." I acknowledge same and continue with the presentation. However, as the weekend progresses and other presentations are made, I really start to get it! Marilyn is great at cold calls, organizing, book and photo projects. Connie is a terrific organizer and keeper of the contact data. I do research, others have done cookbooks, recorded interviews. Some of the younger set are whizs at computers, cameras, sound systems, and all kinds of digital "stuff". Marilyn, Connie, the others, had strengths I did not, some of the family have no time for the research that I do. By combining the talents of residents of the village we had a lot of great stuff we were able to share with the family.

It is summer, it is the time for many family reunions, are you tapping into the talents of your family village? Does Aunt Jane have a photo collection that goes WAYYYYYY back? Has Uncle John recorded distant family members telling stories? I would bet that Aunt Jane and Uncle John would be honored and tickled pink to share. Get the computer savvy nieces and nephews to help, maybe a slide show of the old photos, maybe a DVD with the voice files so others can have a copy.

Tap into your village residents, use their talents for the entire village, prepare for some great reunions!