True family is a phrase often used fraudulently and not applied in its fullest sense. However, in the core of what true family stands for, lies the key to returning society to its joyous and harmonious state.
My first sense of true family was sitting down to eat dinner with Serge Benhayon, his wife Miranda, his three out of four children present at the time – Curtis, Michael and Natalie – and his ex-wife Deborah. YES – Ex-wife.
For me, at the tender age of 12, to watch a family sit at a meal table with what society would deem the most unorthodox of melanges, plus observing every Benhayon family member to be as loving with each other as the next, with no tension, no discrimination and certainly with no sliver of comparison or jealousy anywhere in sight, was absolutely ground breaking.
Not only was the love shared within what we’d call their immediate family circle, for as I sat at that table I was wholeheartedly welcomed into the family meal along with the subsequent ones, never even remotely prejudiced by the fact I had only met Serge a few times in the two years I had known him and the rest of his family even less – some members not at all – OR by the fact Serge’s children and I had grown up on opposite ends of the planet OR the fact that at the time I myself did not see them as my family. On their behalf, there was NO holding back in LOVE. I was truly welcomed and embraced as an equal member of the family.
Fast-forward six years to my first parent-free trip out of Europe heading to Australia. I settled into Sydney’s North Shore in my new household with a family I had never met prior to my trip except for one brief conversation over Skype with a family that made one generally awesome trip a LIFE ALTERING journey.
During my time staying with this family I was never treated as a guest, an ‘outsider’, a person who might come and go, be that in times when something was celebrated, or when one of the family members would bring home slices of banana bread for the family and never forget to include me, or when it was time for me to be pulled up and told that my behaviour was unacceptable, just as my biological mother back in London would do.
To be treated as an absolute equal and to the same extent a vital part of the family, allowed me growth beyond growth and learning that no training course or higher education facility could provide.
This family gave me the space to grow from a boy to a man, all whilst gently and super lovingly supporting me to be able to make my own choices and to take care of all that needed to be felt, read, appreciated, respected, understood and lived. The Love, Appreciation, Gratitude, Adoration and Respect I hold for every member of this family and the Benhayon family is not an atom less than what I hold for my own mother, who has raised me from birth.
And so when I reflect on what true family is, in my bones I know it is not blood bound or placenta promised, as the experiences I have had with the Benhayon family and this other family have shown me. I have been truly blessed to have had these exposures in my life.
It is now my absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with me by these families, to allow those I meet their own growth and learning.
Published with Permission of both families.
By Michael Brown, 20 yr old student and retail supervisor, London UK
Further Reading:
Relationships
Family Love
My Brother – Not an In-Law
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
Thanks Michael as much can be appreciated about living with a unit / Truly extended family that is a true blessing to our every movement that also allows us to be part of a growing feeling which shares a complete and expanding relationship with others and heaven.
“To be treated as an absolute equal and to the same extent a vital part of the family, allowed me growth beyond growth and learning that no training course or higher education facility could provide.” A lesson for all in the education field.
This is not the first time I have read this blog, and I love re-reading it as it is a beautiful reminder of how true family is about love and connection and a holding and respect and care for eachother as well as the pull up lovingly delivered to support us all to grow and evolve no matter our age.
We commonly define family as those who are related in terms of blood and name or marriage, and yet true family does not have to de defined by this narrow view: “And so when I reflect on what true family is, in my bones I know it is not blood bound or placenta promised, as the experiences I have had with the Benhayon family and the Walls family have shown me. I have been truly blessed to have had these exposures in my life.”
One thing our current education system lacks is any form of true relationship support with ourselves, family and friends – society is rife with unhealthy relationships, yet this is not ever a subject even touched upon at school, hence this experience of Michael’s would have been invaluable in growing up: “To be treated as an absolute equal and to the same extent a vital part of the family, allowed me growth beyond growth and learning that no training course or higher education facility could provide.”
Family as you have shared Michael, has a way of deepening every relationship when we are open to letting them in or in being transparent in all we do, which is one and the same, and as when we live this as a True-model we drop all the comparisons (self orientated ideals) that hold us back from evolving.
I have experienced and witnessed a lot of abuse in different families, sometimes directed at me and other times between family members, and I can include host family situations when I lived overseas in this, and other non-blood families. Abuse is common in families, from the obvious to the subtle, so knowing and learning from the Benhayon family is such a blessing. Abuse is so normal when love could easily be that instead, and the Benhayon’s in my experience are leading the way.
Being pulled up with and by love. How often in the world do we do this? Yet it is something so simple, if we are truly in the space to do so. What a gorgeous photo of you and the Walls family. Pictures say a thousand words and that photo speaks many. When I look at that photo my body receives what equalness, joy, love, harmony, respect and integrity truly is ✨
Setting standards, and not accepting less is part of being loving, ‘ it was time for me to be pulled up and told that my behaviour was unacceptable’.
I can vouch for this experience with the Walls family putting up no walls when welcoming my son into their home as an equal part of the family.
Incredible that this is so natural yet has become something we need to qualify by saying ‘true family’ as the norm is now so far from this.
“It is now my absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with me by the Benhayons and the Walls’, to allow those I meet their own growth and learning.”
This is inspiring, to have a standard in life where respect, decency and love for all being our foundation.
‘And so when I reflect on what true family is, in my bones I know it is not blood bound or placenta promised…’ I love that Michael, because at the end of the day we can be true family with everyone.
I love this blog. The appreciation you bring Michael to what you have been shown and what you have learned is priceless. It is utterly gorgeous to read and digest.
This is how we can support each other and how we inspire each other for in being presented with equality and love no matter what the connection we have with another, we know in our bodies what this is, feeling and seeing it lived and in living it ourselves the next person we meet is shown it’s possible too. The magic of living and being us and allowing all others to see and feel it.
That fact that we even need to put the word “true” before family when we talk about true family shows that we all know that there is an untrue family!
True 😉
What an indictment on society it is that we find it groundbreaking for people to be loving with each other.
Love, decency and respect should be our norm in society, it is a sad fact that it is not.
The Livingness of Love holds all as family.
Love runs much deeper than blood, so why be bound by one when we can be unified with the many?
Simple and powerful words Liane that break conventional rules and yet make so much sense and are what bring growth to us all.
True family is not just limited to our blood family and since understanding this, I get the sense that the quality of true family is based on the foundation of love, equality, unity and brotherhood. My experience of family often doesn’t seem to hold these qualities and therefore this makes me question do we truly understand the true meaning of ‘family’?
I am beginning to understand what true family represents, which is to bring love and understanding into any situation that is presented. To be given the grace of expressing what needs to be expressed and to be heard. As I feel that many of us feel that what we have to say is not heard or appreciated and so we close down within the family unit this leads to a lessening of what is there to be expressed and shared.
Some of the most amazing people I consider family and definitely not blood related, it’s so simple it’s just about love not where you come from – family is very much a choice not a right.
It’s so true. Blood becomes irrelevant when you are loved so deeply by someone who doesn’t ‘have to’.
So true Meg, and same for me. I’ve have experienced great love, generosity, understanding and absolutely amazing support from people I call family who are not blood related. We innately know humanity is our family and when love is expressed this deeply confirms it.
Yeh these experiences confirm that no matter who we are or who another person is – there can be the same depth of love, support and understanding, whether it be a stranger on the street, or a good friend, or someone we live with every single day.
To experience the openness and welcome of true family inspires us to treat all as a loving family member of humanity.
When we experience something true, it can then become a marker for us. We get to feel the quality of it and then we know that no matter what is to follow, we can ‘measure’ this up and feel what is needed to bring more love to the relationship to allow it to be in its fullness and full capacity. For after all we are not here to live a half life – we are here to live in full and bring all our amazing qualities to all relationships and to bring the love we are to all.
The Benhayon’s show by their loving way never to give up on love; many of us have withdrawn from life but the pull of the love lived by the Benhayon’s and now many families who have adopted that way of living is too great and more and more people are coming out of their protective shells and starting to re-embrace love and life again. Meeting these people is like a breath of fresh air in a stuffy room.
Once we experience true family it is impossible to go back to what we have believed family to be before, as once the marker of love has been set, we know what true love is and our own responsibilities in that love for ourselves and others, a responsibility of true quality.
Family is family, when family is love.
To be welcomed by a family as a family member and nothing less is the most heartwarming experience, especially when you are on the other side of the world, away from what you may be used to at home. To have a group of people to support you, love and cherish you is so normal yet, so rare in our world.
Gorgeous Michael. All these articles inspired by either Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine or the Benhayon family are by very first read already truly inspiring. They show us that there is another way to be, one that is loving and truly joyous. To be love and to share this love with others.
To feel held, acknowledged, and loved, by those who understand what true family is is so profoundly and deeply healing.
When we experience something true, it’s hard to accept what is not true.
Not only hard, but a force must be used.
Thank you Michael, a full story of what it means to have actually true family, and how often we have accepted lovelessness under the flag of family.
I have definitely fallen for the false version of family and now that I understand what true family is this opens up a whole new level of responsibility and love that is starting to expose the false version simply by living true family and accepting nothing less than love.
To accept only what we know is true fire – brotherhood, and that is eventually with our whole humanity not blood bound.
Family, is a place many experience abuse, it seems that because they are family that supposedly gives another permission to be abusive.
Having true relationships with others provides the space for us all to evolve and that level of Love will set boundaries with standards that become our normal way of living.
Any experience the body registers as true, remains forever as a treasure and as a marker of what is possible and normal. So, it has the possibility of turning into our new standard.
I can feel what true family is and when I read this I wonder if I would have let the love in. I am feeling this connection with others more so and daring to feel vulnerable. I could say my fear of it disappearing gets in the way from me fully letting it all in but really what I can feel is that there’s a responsibility being asked of me. I’m being asked to be the love that I am. There is all the love and understanding in the world and it will never ignore or give up on me – like I had done. This is worth coming back to even.
Reading this blog made me to ponder what true family is. Is it our blood family or is there more to family we do not fully understand yet because we have been fed the concepts of how family should be like, the concepts that are held by many people and therefore ’the’ truth, but maybe not the real truth.
What if family has nothing to do with blood lines and genealogy but more so with an inner connection and above all a responsibility to live with one another such that we make love our guide and with that fully support each other to become more and more of ourselves, every day we live together?
This article really shows the true power of family and how it can be a support for the development of all of society, because now, as you take this experience out in to the world, what you contribute to life is different or changed from what it was before as now you are more responsible, and you are more willing to just be you.
That to me is the power we are offered from living in families, we do learn in the small society of the family and from that you will bring it to the outer society and to the world.
Beautifully shared Michael, to be treated with deep love, respect and equality is what true family is all about. We are so blessed to have this understanding about family and be able to live and share this love equally with all.
I welcome the day everyone treats everyone with love, respect, decency and equality.
I’ve often heard the concept that there are no strangers just people I don’t know yet but this sharing takes it to another level – if we’re willing to be open and treat each person as our family with expectation we in fact live that we are all one family and there are no strangers.
I love what you have shared here Michael, true family is not limited by blood, when we drop pictures of what family is we discover the deeper connections we all share universally with each other.
Gorgeous to read this expression of family – and that it is not about blood. There are so many relationships we can develop with those around us, that can be full of love and that can support us in full. Family is about a shared responsibility indeed.
And so it ripples further, I love how you’ve now got in you the lived experiences of true family and are now offering that to all you meet. Very inspiring Michael.
We miss out on life and what it has to offer when we treat our ‘own’ differently to another for our responsibility is not just to our blood family but to everyone that we meet and come into contact with.
When we discover the true meaning of ‘family’ it just keeps growing.
It is the quality of love integrity and respect that we hold others in that makes a family what it is. We often let this drop especially in blood families where we can take each other for granted or display emotions that we would rarely show outside family confines. Our first relationship is to ourselves so developing that in such a way that we hold ourselves in love integrity and respect will support us in all relationships. How awesome though to experience first hand this way of being with each other in a family situation. Thank you for sharing and knocking the ideal of blood family out of the water.
“It is now my absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect” beautiful for you to have experienced Michael, true love integrity and respect from those you have lived with, so that you can now reflect those qualities to all people you come across knowing that all humanity are our family.
Michael what you share here with True family is something that is sorely missing in the world, yet is something that Serge Benhayon has more than inspired is possible through his family.
The sense of love and support and togetherness that is felt from this blog is exactly what makes up true family.
What a template you have shared Michael, for we can all learn so much from what you have shared!
What I love about this great experience of true family you had Michael, is that it feels obvious that the way the Benhayon and Walls family embraced you as total equals will now be carried on to how you hold other people as true family even if they are not biologically related. The funny thing is that it is so easy to simply act the same and love everyone equally, yet we tend to use so much energy to hold onto some ideal or belief that says we should protect and serve our own family first and above everyone else.
Michael, this is gorgeous to re-visit and be reminded of how true family is possible for all to live, with different choices and holding all equally. It is deeply inspiring to read of the ‘knock on effect’ this has had on your life and living with it with true responsibility.
“It is now my absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with me by the Benhayons and the Walls’, to allow those I meet their own growth and learning”.
Michael what really jumps out at me as you shared about the responsibility of holding others in that same quality, having had these very clear experiences of true family, is the joy that it is in being this way. The joy that is responsibility.
To have experiences as such is a reflection within you know what true family and brotherhood is. Having a similar experience at 12 years of age and travelling overseas to live with many different families, this felt the most natural to me. That family is much larger than just blood, and my parents also have more children than just us by blood, it is amazing.
Love this Michael as it totally deconstructs the paradigm we currently hold about families. Your lived wisdom is evidence of just how natural it is for us to embrace, support and love each other to learn, grow and evolve regardless if we are born into the same blood family or not. For if we open ourselves up to consider more deeply who we are we will see the we are all kin of Soul, as such all connected by love.
This is indeed what true family is, being treated as an equal member in love and being held to the responsibility of that love. What a gorgeous sharing Michael, thank you.
When we read carefully we can learn that living together is about a responsibility, the responsibility to love and to not allow anything else than love to be in that constellation of people who have made the choice to make life about evolution and not about function, a quality of life that families normally think to be.
So true Nico, make life about True Love and the whole world would be one unified family.
So beautiful to read of how held you were as an absolute equal within these families. It makes me ponder on how much I can let things slide and not be loving with my family and understanding where they are at.
This blog is about the power of reflection. When reflection is true, we get a feeling of truth being reflected and of the fact that no one cannot feel it.
Indeed Eduardo, while we can try to deny this feeling from our ideals or beliefs, but that cannot take away the fact that we all do feel this oneness when meeting a reflection that is from our true nature.
Thank you for your truly heartfelt sharing Michael.
Same for me Michael, when I reflect on what true family means, there is no doubt that everyone on this planet is my family. This breaks down the lies that I have fallen for that family is blood related only.
It sure does Chan – our fixation on our physicality being the only aspect of life that defines who we are is restricting and limiting our true potential to the point that we don’t actually have a real sense of who we are. As such we focus even more narrowly to our immediate families only, to gain some sense of belonging. And when this doesn’t work we are lost. There is so much more to us and it’s time to begin exploring what this means in order for us to embrace a life lived in true harmony, in true family.
Beautiful Michael and so true, family is all those we hold close to our hearts, which means that with every expansion of our love our family grows until one day we see all as our own family.
Beautifully said Carolien, with every expansion of our love, our family grows. I love it and I know it is true and is such a liberation compared to the reduced image of family I held in the past in which only a relationship in blood was to be recognised as such.
This “family” still, and forever will, hold a very dear place in my heart ❤️
So gorgeous what you have shared Michael, so deeply blessed you have been to love and be loved with absolutely equality.
This is definitely the future of what families will be like. In fact we are all one family and until that is known and lived we simply will not live together in the collective unity that is possible, for underneath the same blood runs and so too are we all made of the same and equal love.
Indeed Joshua, while we can have different blood groups in essence, which is bodily, we are all one and the same in love.
Absolutely, ‘It is now my absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with me’, as it is for all of us.
I have come to see, rather late in life, that when we restrict who is our family to just our biological family we are missing out on inviting many, many others into our lives. I am loving having people in my life who I may share a lot of time or very little time with, but people who I consider to be a natural member of my true family. These people bring so much joy and wisdom into my life and I certainly do not love them any less than my biological family; hard for most to understand but something that feels totally natural to me. And the door is never closed to new members of this family, in fact it is always wide open with a big ‘welcome’ sign hanging on it
“It is now my absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with me by the Benhayons and the Walls’, to allow those I meet their own growth and learning.” Yes Michael. Once we feel the truth of true family it is not ours to hold back. It is for all equally.
It is beautiful to feel and experience this, ‘there was NO holding back in LOVE. I was truly welcomed and embraced as an equal member of the family.’
“And so when I reflect on what true family is, in my bones I know it is not blood bound or placenta promised, as the experiences I have had with the Benhayon family and the Walls family have shown me. ” So true Michael. We are all one family – the human race – as we all come from the same source – and will all return there.
Super gorgeous Michael, a true reflection of equality is an incredible healing for one to feel.
In the world the belief that family is only blood related or at least living in a family setting related we often see everyone outside of this family as different and that we do not need to be ourselves with them as a result. It is like we don’t have to say what we feel and we don’t have to express our love but this is so not true and it could be just one of the reasons why the world is as it is. The other day I opened up to someone a little bit more and shared honestly why I was behaving the way I did and it made us so much closer straight away. This really inspired me to keep this up and be myself with everyone. We can only be keeping up the facades for so long and letting them go is very healing for everyone involved.
The photos are really gorgeous and communicate so much. This is a great line “However, in the core of what true family stands for, lies the key to returning society to its joyous and harmonious state.” This is very true, when we all extend our love to all, society will be rock solid. This is what we all truly want, to love and be loved. It’s truly awesome that you had these experiences and can share them.
This is just gorgeous to read, what true family is and that no-one is excluded and all are free to be vital members of it. How different would life be if I was this way with everyone? No imposed barriers, yes an understanding of norms and professional boundaries but no prejudice in not seeing a person’s true relationship as we are all connected as a humanity.
“To be treated as an absolute equal and to the same extent a vital part of the family, allowed me growth beyond growth and learning that no training course or higher education facility could provide.” It really is so lovely to read the incredible appreciation you share here, not for some gap year, but for your and everyones growth and evolution.
Thank you, Michael, an example of how true family is lived and wholeheartedly is with people, not just in the circle, but extensively for sure beyond…
Family is a word that is enormously broader than how it is normally used in the world today. It is held dear as one of the most important things on earth, and yet it is also used to make some more important than others. This is where it fails us. What is presented here shows us that family is about connection, and that connection is possible with everyone.
Thank you Michael for sharing what true family is all about, this allows one to dispel the lies we have grown up with where we make blood family everything when in truth we can receive so much blessings and healing when we open up to others equally and so our opportunity to evolve are endless when we live from an open heart.
Michael I love how you claim that you know it in your boned that true family is ‘not blood bound or placenta promised’ because of your experiences with the two families. Family as we know it nowadays is such an illusion we all have taken on and it holds us back from living the love that we are. I know it held me back but living in the community of the Students of the Way of the Livingness has changed this perspective by exposing the beliefs and ideals I had about being a mother and having a family.
Its so wonderfull Michael you have lived the opportunity that came before you and you have learned a true understanding is not about family its about people and where people truly come from.
I have come to know many people over my lifetime who I call family. And then extending that out, are we not all one big family here on planet earth?
Yes Debra we are and we always will be until times where this distinction is no longer needed.
True family is the space presided by love that we share together by holding it within us.
Gorgeous Michael, what I equally experienced having spend 8 months with the Benhayon family is extend of love and understanding they held for eachother and me. Even though I did not biologically was one of them – I definately felt as one set of brothers and sisters and with Miranda and Serge equally as parents, even though it felt grander than just parents or family members together – this feeling of Oneness that got me re-awakened. The equalness between them – that I simply could connect to straight away was truly profound. And so I did. I let in the love of the equallness and I found myself having those exact same feelings of equallness/oneness in my body. As if a light simply got lit, all of a sudden I saw not just shadow but the effect the light was having in opposition to the dark. The light started to make way and sense – as the dark got less hold. This symbolically shows the exact walk/path in life I had made since then – walking in the equallness I have felt deep inside – inspired that I can life that everyday and be that with everyone – one day inspiring the many many to come to do the same to, simply I was inspired by the Benhayon family, who continue to inspire me – everyday in my life. Thank you deeply so to all the Benhayon family members – as all of this change would have not occured without you.
And since then my family has grown even larger, expanding the connections I have with people all around the world.
It is a common saying that humanity is all one family, which is true, yet today’s reflection is of a very dysfunctional one!
When we choose to be family with anyone we meet, family in its truth is reflected back for us to feel and the steadiness we choose life with, will be the consistency our life becomes.
as they say, blood is not thicker than water.
Absolutely gorgeous Michael – amen to that – I deeply agree from my experience too. Family is not blood related, it is in the true way you life.
So beautiful to read Michael. I love that I no longer believe in the concept of family only being bound by blood. It makes no sense when we look around us with all the destruction in family violence – emotional and physical that that can be the representation of true family. Society has bastardised the meaning of the word which is a shame as many of us have not bothered to challenge the meaning, and instead continue to believe that treating family members badly is acceptable simply because they are related by blood and they aren’t going anywhere. Makes no sense.
It is truly beautiful Michael to read your deep appreciation and love for the Benhayon family and the Walls family – having the experience of true family in life leaves an imprint in us that we are forever inspired and supported by.
Thank you for sharing your insights into true family Michael. Your experiences are a stark contrast to the lie of family where we are told we must ‘stick together’ no matter what. I grew up feeling like family was an insurance policy meaning you weren’t left to be alone with no one to support you no matter what you do. I have seen that this isn’t a true way to be and it’s a failed insurance anyway as many are left to die alone in nursing homes when they become an ‘inconvenience’ to others or begin to reflect the uncomfortable truth of a lifetime of choices.
And even for the ones that do “stick together”, in what quality to they stick? I have seen many families that would pride themselves on being close and family-like, but the underlying abuse is very much there and taking its toll on all involved.
Family has become a place of tension instead of love these days. Teenagers being rude to their parents is normal, having fights with your siblings is normal, parents not getting along all the time is normal, tv dinners are normal, stress is normal, gossip is normal, putting up with abuse is normal…. and I could go on. But this is all not true family. True family is, yes, truly based on love and being loving and at least respectful with each other to the best of our abilities. It is a place of warmth and being deeply cared for even if this means to be pulled up for acts at some times, but never forgetting the love that we are in these moments.
What a gift to have experienced as a young man… Truly a heart warming article that opens the doorways for possibilities for all of us
It’s interesting how we treat people in and out of our family differently, it’s almost like we see it as we can’t get involved with what’s going on for other people outside our own family. It’s inspiring that this family treated you with the same love and care and especially discipline as their own children. It’s a beautiful example of our how responsibility is so much greater than just our “own” family, but that our responsibility actually extends to well-being and evolution of everyone around us.
Great point Meg – you have me pondering whether there are differences in the way I treat the family I have grown up with and the way I treat people outside my biological family…. Ah yes there is a difference, a lot of the time I have treated my biological family worse than anyone else! We often take our family members for granted, when we see them as people first we are blessed with an opportunity to truly connect.
Beautiful to read of your experiences here Michael, thank you. True family is all of us – the whole of humanity and certainly not bound by blood, culture, heritage or genes as you say.
I really like these thoughts that you shared. It is something I had to learn while growing up, too. Anyone really can be your family!
What a gorgeous story to read Michael; a story of a young man taking full responsibility for his choices and inspiring others to do the same. Indeed, as you were inspired by the Benhayon and Walls families to live with
love, appreciation, gratitude, adoration and respect for all, irrespective of blood family ties.
Michael, you have totally blown the long accepted belief as to what family is to smithereens, and as a result offering humanity the opportunity to understand what “true family” is. It may take a while for this understanding to permeate through society as it will be met by a lot of resistance but as far as I’m with you whole-heartedly as I too finally know what true family is and am now appreciating all the wonderful family that I have today.
Yes Ingrid, humanity will need to adjust to this fact, and in time see the truth of where we have come from – and where we are going.
There is no greater act of love than to hold another in the equalness that love is and they are. For in that moment we honor and confirm the truth of all that we are, can live and are here be, as such representing the oneness of God that flows through our every cell equally so regardless of our race, gender, colour, religion, or family. What you have shared here Michael is a beautiful testament of how when we do hold another in equalness we learn, grow and allow more of who we really are to come to life.
We often say in our house that family is love not blood. Which makes every person responsible for what they bring to the table, for what they contribute to the whole, and for every choice that they make. And what I have found is that love is a choice and no matter what any one else in my family chooses, my love is not to be compromised or reduced. No one is left out of my family because I have enough love to go around the whole world and back again.
Incredible blog Michael, what makes it even stronger is the fact that what you have written here are not just words. The integrity, love and care that I have experienced from the first meal I shared with you and Dragana have also been life altering!
Thanks Michael, for me since I began developing relationships within the Universal Medicine student body I have begun to understand what true family feels like. It definitely transcends blood, age, gender etc and seems to be spontaneously there at times. As human beings we are designed to express our love and care and as we allow that to become our natural way it makes sense that others around us get to experience what true family feels like.
I love the fact that you can now feel the responsibility you have to love and hold every other person in your life in the same way that you have been held by these families. What a gift for the world that you have taken away.
True family has no boundaries, it holds no other less or more. It is not sectioned by blood, nor does it divide by name. It honours communication with transparency and speaks only evolution. True family is us all living in brotherhood moving to the breath of God.
Very beautifully said Kim – this is our absolute way of being together from which we can then truly begin to live all that we are and awaits to be live.
Discovering that true family is “not blood bound or placenta promised” opens the door to a whole new experience of family, and one that in truth is the whole of humanity
This is indeed a testimony of true family. There are no boundaries between us, we naturally are pulled to being equal, but we have learnt to build walls physically as well as unseen ones and with that bring an imbalance into our relationships, championing some things higher and more worthy than others.
Absolutely beautiful to read Michael, isn’t it crazy how limited we have made our lives, compared to what we could live.
‘And so when I reflect on what true family is, in my bones I know it is not blood bound or placenta promised’. I totally agree with you Michael, and the more I love and accept myself, the easier it becomes to love others without judgement for no-one is perfect and no-one has all the answers. But when we hold and respect each other, brotherhood is our natural state of being.
Gosh I find this super inspiring Michael. Not in the sense that what you have experienced is anything special per se as it is so natural and easy and without question that you would be treated with such love and care. More so in the fact of how normal it was in such cases to simply be held and let in like that. That is something that ought to be experienced not just in our families but in every situation. Let go of the guards and let the world in.
Wow! That’s inspiring Michael. You describe equality in a way that rings so true.
With what is shared here and seeing it as our responsibility to hold all others as family, is to me the very essence of what living our life is about.
Hear hear Leigh, and I have come a long way to know and understand that we are all connected and that the word family encompasses all others and that the way forward is to live in brotherhood.
As I re-read this blog once again, it really brings me back to my purpose in life. I am here to reflect another way – THE way. And that is only done through my livingness, building my consistency step by step, moment by moment.
I didn’t really feel the magnitude of this blog when it was first published, however, now it feels so dear to me, thank you, Michael ❤
How gorgeous! This shows me that family is actually possible with everyone and anyone. That blood is not a mandatory – that actually we are all one family and it is just a case of how open we are willing to be with each other.
It is such a blessing for you to be able to have had the opportunity to experience true family like you have, for so many don’t even realize that what they have is not filled with the love, equality, respect and appreciation that is indeed possible… and therefore to experience this cannot be anything short of deeply inspirational. Without these qualities as the foundation and the norm we are settling for less and denying the beauty that is there to embrace between us.
Michael your blogs blows me away. What you have been offered, I wish for many to feel. This is what true family is, treating another as equal and not allowing them to feel otherwise. Lets bring on true family, this is where the evolution lies.
It is so beautiful to be able to go to another person’s house and be treated as an absolute equal and as part of the family. This is true community and it is very much needed.
What a beautiful gift to experience from two families, this knowing of what a true family feels like. Our ideas that ‘blood is thicker than water’ and ‘family comes first’ are all ways that we keep ourselves separate and exclusive in our relationships with one another. I am loving opening up to the fact that we are all family, all equal and no relationship is more important than any other. This is not how I was raised or what society tells me, but I know this to be true from deep within me.
It was so lovely to read from your perspective just how easy it is to feel the love of others and also not have a picture around what being ‘in a family means’. That it is about how we are with each other, loving others, but also letting in the love of those around us.
What a gorgeous celebration of true family and evolution Michael. Thank you.
Beautiful Michael. The world literally just opens up for us when we redefine what true family is and accept that it is indeed ‘not blood bound or placenta promised’.
I have never spent time with the Benhayons in the way which you have so I cannot comment on that, but I do know every exchange I have had with Serge and Miranda and other member of the Benhayon family have been nothing short of absolute love. Miranda Benhayon is one of the most sweet, understanding. non judgemental, realistic people I know with an absolute huge heart.
A beautiful appreciation of True Family and a profound understanding that “It is now my absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect.”
This is a great blog as there is so many ideals and beliefs around family and you are dispelling them with this sharing of your own experience.. so needed .
Our greatest learning and evolution is in relationships with each other. Through reflection, observation and communication we can understand so much more about ourselves and life as a whole.
That’s beautiful! I’m working on a piece about family at the moment and it’s good to get some inspiration from other blogs. It’s lovely and I really enjoy reading your work! Happy holidays 🙂
Michael, you speak a deep truth quite naturally and simple: “in the core of what true family stands for, lies the key to returning society to its joyous and harmonious state”. What if w would live in the responsibility of making a family-live harmonious? What if that would be our first task and role in life? Not to be a good boy or girl, not to be successful in school or later in career, not to find the one soul mate – but to live in a way with my family that reflects and so brings harmony into this world. If every family on earth would live under this guiding principles – the world would be so different. So – lets start and bring that harmony, this ‘true family’ into our lives. Now. We have some role models. So it is possible.
Beautiful family photos…beautiful blog, you can see the connection and love, this is what makes family.
Family is all around us, if we allow it.
True family – being the same love with everyone equally. It is love and equality that makes family not kinship or any other social, emotional, national or cultural attachment.
Yes. Our all kinship is our connection and our equality. We have in fact kinship relations with every soulful being – but do we live and express this fact? No. So we are fighting our kinship by the false ideals of culture, races, nationality and other creations that bring us into a separation. Why do we fight our kinship? What would happen if we would live it? We would evolve. Truly evolve. Step by step we would claim the stairway to heaven – back to where we are coming from. Interesting that we fight so much our purpose and our glory – although we make it look like we want this.
‘And so when I reflect on what true family is, in my bones I know it is not blood bound or placenta promised’, this line resonates so much with me today and a powerful reminder that our family is whoever we are close too, and whoever we live with and does not have to be blood……
I love this line too… especially the ‘placenta promised’ bit. As soon as we make it just about blood bound family members, we are missing out on true connections with the rest of our brothers… we are part of a much bigger and grander whole and each play a role in reflecting that back to each other. So the more reflections the better I say!
What a gorgeous blog to read and enjoy. A life-changing opportunity to experience the power, joy and harmony that is possible when invited to sit and be with true family. The Benhayon family is a true marker and constant reflection for the world that it is possible and natural for all people to live this way 24/7.
“……to watch a family sit at a meal table with what society would deem the most unorthodox of melanges, plus observing every Benhayon family member to be as loving with each other as the next, with no tension, no discrimination and certainly with no sliver of comparison or jealousy anywhere in sight, was absolutely ground breaking”.
Thank you Elizabeth
We are all potential family to each other and you experiences of how we can all be true family regardless of blood bear this out Michael, what a gift and thank you for sharing it with all of us another family.
“It is now my absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with me…”Absolutely Michael – thank you for the reminder, for the call to be more responsible.
It makes so much sense to see each other as family and not create barriers for those not ‘bound by blood’. How much richer life is when viewed this way.
Beautiful to read your full appreciation Michael, of these two gorgeous families and everything that they reflect for the world.
How different it is when we consider true family to be everyone around us, for we all deserve equally the same love being reflected of where we all come from.
Reading this I reflected that twice in my life I have lived with other families being treated, loved and respected equally as any other member, with dear friends of mine still saying to me their home is my home. Feeling this I am very aware of a feeling I had (and can still feel remients of this still subtly within my body) growing up which was always putting myself last and not allowing my whole being to belong to something with absolute love, it is a kind of in incidious meek, mild and timid feeling that I ‘do not count’. So feeling these opportunities I was given a situation where I could heal this, to not hold back with love and truly feel equal as another. For me it is times or moments like this when Love is asking us to be all that we are ✨
I am living in a house of 5 adults, all not related to one another, but being open and loving with them and developing true family. This is about being open and transparent about how we feel, this can be challenging at times, it can also be really wonderful and supportive. Being open to family being more than just blood relatives can sometimes push the boundaries for others, yet reflect an amazing new way of living and being.
Thanks Michael – this confirms that we are truly connected everyone and that family in the biological sense is just the beginning of family being lived with everyone else.
I love how Michael’s writing so clearly shows that 12 year olds sense and know what a true family is. We all do – no matter what age we are. It’s often just that we have been taught family consists only of our relations by ‘blood’, when in fact, family is all our relationships based on ‘heart’.
Super to read from a 20 year old’s perspective that you know it is your “absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with me by the Benhayons and the Walls, to allow those I meet their own growth and learning.” We all can choose to live in that way and ‘grow our family’.
Yes… knowing your our true family is global, that it has naught to do with bloodlines and everything to do with a willingness to be open and let another truly see us, is an incredible way to live our lives. We are backed to the core, regardless of where we are we know we are held by our brothers. There is no loneliness when we open up to humanity and let our love out — love once again comes back to us in spades.
I am attending a family (as in blood) funeral today and I understand more than ever that this is only one slice of the pie of what true family is. I support and am supported by, love and am loved by so many people that are not my biological family and come to understand more and more that family includes all… literally all, of humanity.
What is so wonderful about living with such love, openness and inclusivity is that it has ripple effects. Just reading the wonderful final statement: “It is now my absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with me by the Benhayons and the Walls’, to allow those I meet their own growth and learning” shows me how this expansive understanding of family when lived, has the potential to change the whole world.
I second that wholeheartedly – true family is not “blood bound or placenta promised” at all, it is grounded in the depth and genuineness of welcoming and truly meeting one another.
We never resist being truly ‘met by another’ or cared for and this is an example of those human attributes that know no boundaries, family definitions included. An absolutely delightful sharing Michael Brown!
This is absolutely beautiful, and really exposes a kind of relationship I have gotten used to as a ‘family’ – whether that means a blood family where jealousy and comparison was rife between the siblings and other extended members; or a group where we would feel a sense of belonging to, and somewhat separate ourselves from the outsiders. A true family as you share here is a possibility that is available to all of us.
Gorgeous Michael, it is a special thing to feel and experience the truth of family. It is surely not blood bound, we are family with everyone, if we allow ourselves to be open and connected to everyone.
It doesn’t matter what others say and do you absolutely know with every fibre of you, if you are included and held this way you describe Michael. We might not expect to be cared for like this, but what your experience reminds me is this is absolutely natural. Family and nurturing each other should never ever know any boundary, segregation or be delivered with any qualification, condition or hesitation. We are all members of one family group who deserve to be treated with warm-hearted openness.
This is so beautiful to read and this is what most of us truly crave, to be a part of – A family that Lives the Love that we are innately designed to be and it is open endlessly to all.
That craving was so present for me, I tried so many things to satisfy it, to no avail, before I finally realised why I had the craving in the first place (courtesy of Benhayons & Walls) — I had chosen to separate myself from a cosmic amount of people. How exactly did I think I was going to be satisfied by having a dinner with 3 or 4!?
Michael it is so cool to read how you have learnt and experienced what true family is and that you have such an appreciation for this. A man that is entering adulthood with such wisdom has so much to offer. Beautiful.
It is beautiful to read about your journey and how it had supported you to live with a family who were open and loving to you equally. This is sure what true family is, no boundaries or walls, just openness.
I love this blog. So often we underestimate kids and teenagers and all that they see and observe. It’s gorgeous to read that a 12 year old was noticing all the things that make the Benhayon family a true family. It is so great to have these markers, as without them we look at all the fighting between X-partners, jealousy, tension etc and see that as normal.
It is wonderful to read the words of a young man stepping out in to the world with no boundaries as to what love or family is.
I too have observed the Benhayon family and some other families that live and share true family in the way you have described. Very few of us ever experienced that loving way of living, even within our families. It can sometimes bring up a bit of stuff to see people being so loving and open with each other as it exposes all that is not of that and all that is not of that is actually a big ouch!
The big ouch you have shared here Nicole Lessing is a great opportunity to squirm and learn what is being offered for us to take a deeper look at what we have “thought’ were the hallmarks of true family and then been given an example in the truest form through the Benhayon family.
Thank you Michael for showing us what true family is, the world has fallen for the illusion of blood family when in truth we are all one family. The love that you felt with these two families is golden and makes a great blue print for others to also live with such love and truth.
Michael, I can feel how being a family is so much more than about just blood ties as you have shown. Family can be with anyone, anywhere as we are all in truth one big family. The families we constallate in to give us the opportunity to heal, evolve and express.
We live in a society where education is being drummed into children from such a young age yet we can learn so much about ourselves and others through the way we choose to live. To be inspired to feel the equality and connection with others so that we are supported to be ourselves is far greater than any qualification achieved.
This is a beautiful example of what true family is, thank you for sharing Michael.
When we look at it truthfully the belief that the connection with blood relatives is stronger, has done so much harm in keeping humanity separated. This blog knocks the old saying blood is thicker than water right out of the park.
I agree kevmhardy that saying sure holds no value when you read a blog like this that brings the basics back to relationships and an understanding that the word family is far greater than we choose to believe.
This blog shows me to maybe let go of the concept we commonly hold of family to be blood related as it does not cover the truth of what family actually is. In essence we are all family as that is what is connecting us from deep within while the concept of family being blood related is placing a wedge in between relationships that holds us separated from one another.
Just lovely to hear the experiences so fully appreciated – no taking for granted here. And given that I’m sure that you will offer a similar opportunity to others along the way.
You are absolutely correct, Michael, true family is “not blood bound or placenta promised”. I live in a small town where a number of students of the Way of The Livingness now live and i can honestly say they are my ‘true family’. Although we may not gather together that frequently I know from experience that if there is any support needed for someone it is automatically there, And as time passes so the intimacy between us is steadily growing.
Michael – your sharing highlights the fact that not all families live with the same level of integrity and respect and deep care that we are actually capable of offering each other. How I have said this is key – I have said that we are all actually capable of offering this, but we may very often choose not to do so. Your experience has certainly been life changing and with this as a foundation laid for you in life, and with this as a marker or set minimum standard now, there can only be growth beyond growth of the kind no training course or higher education facility could provide.Thank you for this amazing inspiration and reminder of our true priorities in life!
Great blog, Michael. And it’s beautiful that you have taken none of this for granted. That you deeply appreciate and love these families and the experiences you had with them…that can really be felt in your writing.
Thank you for these words Nick
True family is there between every single one of us, it is but a choice to return to and live the qualities of this from within. This is a beautiful blog to read and to feel the very real possibilities of returning to a more natural way of being and caring for each other as opposed to the separation and conflict we have become accustomed to and even accepted as human nature.
Our blood families often form the foundation for us when we are growing up but we only truly evolve when our “family” is inclusive of all humanity .
Michael what a great point you raise here “It is now my absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with me” the appreciation that you share is massive yet that is shared knowing that it is your responsibility to share this with all others, that true family can’t be isolated or kept to a few but is the way we are with all.
Michael, I am really coming to realise that we do not need to be blood related to be true family, I am experiencing that we can have a closeness and love and support with our neighbours, friends and colleagues and that it need not be considered any less or any different than relationships we can have with our blood family.
In many cultures and institutionalized religions we are taught: “family is our highest good”. We then think about blood lines, Mums and Dads, kids and grandchildren etc. What if this thinking is our highest evil and prevents us from living as a true family globally?
Thank you Michael, these photos of you with your other families are living testaments to true family and how the love that can be shared knows no blood or genetic boundaries.
“And so when I reflect on what true family is, in my bones I know it is not blood bound or placenta promised”. This is such a blessing to know this especially at such a young age because you can now bring this to all of those around you and I think it takes the pressure off our blood families to be everything to each other.
It is an eternal blessing to know that family is not defined our blood, but who we hold dear.
And how dearly I do hold you Heather
“allowed me growth beyond growth and learning that no training course or higher education facility could provide.” this is so awesome Michael, our best learning and growing comes from living life and not from any study or schooling.
This blog is an absolutely beautiful sharing about true family. True family with no boundaries and bloodlines and being about connection, support and quality resonates strongly with me. The more I peel back the images of relationships and family and live the truth of who I am and what I bring – the more I realise just how entrapped we have become with ideals and beliefs as a society around these topics.
Having this as your understanding and appreciation that the responsibility of being the Love that you are equally with all is one that each and every single one of us can be. That each of us have the power to reflect such grandness and then others will see that they too are just as grand. Beautiful how love is all encompassing.
“…so when I reflect on what true family is, in my bones I know it is not blood bound or placenta promised…” – deep down, we all know this, that love isn’t bound by blood, it goes way beyond that.
What you share here is changing the whole perception of family that is held in society today. It is the beauty of true family, that it isn’t bound by blood, but by the innate connection we have with everyone.
And in truth anyone can be family. It is about our quality we are with each other and with ourselves first and foremost.
There is no feeling like feeling part of a family. But family runs much deeper and wider than blood family. People who don’t have a blood family can still have family. We are all a part of the same whole, so cannot but be family.
The more I consider my understanding of family, the more I realise that what I used to think of as family (those I was related to by blood) was such a reduced and strangled version of the truth; a reductionist view point that left me starving of the true potential of all the other relationships in my life. I now consider many people to be my family and I am richer for it.
I was raised to believe that my blood family was my one and only family, and this pattern was deeply entrenched and totally considered as normal. It has taken a while to come to a knowing of what true family is, the question being first put to me and many others by Serge Benhayon at a Universal Medicine retreat some years ago. Exploring that question has been an amazing and revealing process, and has indelibly changed the way I now look at what a family truly is. Today I have a wonderful family that consists of not only blood relatives, but of many other amazing and supportive people, and I love them all equally so.
Thank you for sharing this reflection on true family Michael. My true family is ever expanding and I feel how amazing it is to be open, transparent and welcoming of people into my life. There is nothing that I need to protect or hide, and if I feel that there is something to hide then this is for me to see if that thing (object, behaviour or activity) is really true for me. True family is so supportive in the evolution of who I am.
Just recently I sat down for dinner with 12 other people who weren’t related to me, and we had a dinner with no alcohol. It was an incredible experience and blows out of the water the idea of what family is. Family for me now is anyone who I create a relationship with who is willing to develop that relationship and talk about meaningful things with eyes wide open to how the world is. I mention the no alcohol as the conversation steered to many topics and I felt the depth of the conversation could keep growing as it isn’t inhibited by the drinks that I have previously experienced would knock the conversation into silly topics or behaviours. Instead there is an honesty and a warm sharing that made the meal a coming together or family, a sharing of people regardless of who was born of whom.
“…there was NO holding back in LOVE. I was truly welcomed and embraced as an equal member of the family”~ Michael these words are pure gold. I have spent most of my adult life struggling with boundaries. Boundaries within friendships and boundaries within the family. Now I realise that I have been holding back and if I let all preconceived ‘ideas’ of what boundaries are and let everyone in then true connections would be made and everyone would feel equally loved for who they are, uniting the bigger family of humanity.
Family is so often thought of as our blood family, but when we open our hearts everyone is family, what is really beautifully expressed here is that when there is true family there is also true love and as a result there is no holding back, support comes with responsibility in allowing someone the space to grow and at the same time lovingly telling them the truth of their choices when necessary.
Michael, thank you for your sharing, it shows how when we are open to being true family we are able to be anywhere in the world and equally loved and supported and at the same time we are equally able to love and support others in a true way of being.
Simply put. There are no borders – geographical, social, cultural or otherwise – in true family.
And when we strip all this away we are just left to be and be with each other.
There are so many ways by which we reduce life to the point where we no longer feel connected to other human beings. The belief that blood is thicker than water is merely one of them.
Thanks for re writing the true definition of family, holding everybody in equal love and respect.
When we let go of the blood bound belief that these are our only family and open the doors to people that are just as equally loving and supportive as our own and sometimes even more then we have an opportunity where by our family are the ones we spend time with that deeply care, express and live responsibly the true Love that we are (not the emotional kind). To me this is real family and it is worth Gold.
Michael- What an absolutely beauty-full and life enriching experience you describe having lived with both the Benhayons and Walls family- living what true family means, not needing to be blood bound. Very inspiring.
Michael to get to live and experience the fact that True Family is not bound by blood but by purpose and a willingness to connect with and have a relationship with another is a lesson for us all. It goes against everything I was taught or bought up to believe about family.
Michael, you make such a great point in your blog, bringing our attention to one vital point, family is not about blood relatives and kin, it’s absolutely all about humanity and brotherhood and helping each other in love. if we are holding another more in love, how can that be true love at all?
Gorgeous blog of appreciation Michael, and an incredible life lesson that family is about the care that is given, not the blood that runs through our veins.
We do in life tend to rely on the physical as the be all and end all a lot eg. What family means, genetics, illness etc
However we have a whole energetic world that we are and are part of that is always taking place whether we choose to be aware of it or not. And the physical is often the last or end result of what has already taken place energetically. If we all loved and lived from our true essence and energetically then our physical would reflect the truth of who we all are.
There is no greater testament than expressing about the responsibility you feel to share with others what has been shared with you.
Beautiful Michael, true family brings a universality to the way we live in the world.
There is such wisdom in your description of true family here, the space to be and the loving guidance when we are not living who we truly are.
The realisation that true family ‘is not blood bound or placenta promised’ opens us up to a whole new reality and wealth of support with each other not only amongst our friends but in our neighborhoods, workplaces, communities… there are no limits really.
‘yes ex-wife’ I don’t know of any other family other than the Benhayon s who honour everyone equally whatever the relationship is between each other. This has so inspired me to not hold onto old hurts or grudges I’ve had with ex partners but to always hold them in the highest regard.
To not be prejudiced and held as an absolute equal in both of these cases is extremely rare indeed Michael, even though it ought to be far more common if not the norm. This is most definitely True Love.
The motion of true family resonates with me as feeling back the universality of our beings.
Breaking down the walls around the isolated units of blood relations, insular communities, social class etc. has opened my world up to true family, relationship and responsibility and this feels like it will expand endlessly…
Having been brought up in a culture that true family is blood family, this completely was far from the truth. Over the years I have come to see how this is not true. This is an ideal and belief that was programmed into us, as it was programmed into our parents. As a family we broke away from this belief system.
Such a beautiful account, Michael. I especially love that you feel responsible to share with others the inspiration of true family that has been shared with you.
Letting others in does not leave any shortage of family, it’s up to me to stay with an open heart to all. It’s when I limit my relationships to my immediate family, waiting for love to fill me from there, that I then miss the connection to a love that is there for all to feel
Like with Michael Brown, I also at first saw the relationships within the Benhayon Family as strange. I could not understand how there could be so much love and understanding between ex-spouses, new spouses and the like. Mainly because this is not what I had seen in my own family through divorce and remarriages. But what the Benhayon Family have consistently and without fail shown me is that love does not falter. Yes there are tough times and emotions can get frayed, yes there can be miscommunications and stressful times, life is life after all and no one is perfect. But when there is an underlying commitment to love this can see us through the tightest of times when even to breathe feels like a struggle. Because with love, every one is included.
My family is increasing through being open to that occurring. I have more people in my life that I am truly connected with, than I ever have and what has changed has been my approach to considering that it is possible and that we can be intimate and open with other people. When I closed myself off, my family was limited, when I open my heart it is not.
I have never in my life accepted more people as my true family,. I can sincerely say that when I walk out of my house I feel that people I meet are family. We connect, we are equal, we feel the divinity, we are family. I do not always get it perfect. I have children and a husband and sometimes I can get stuck in that focus, but I know in my body that we are all connected and divinely equal and we make up the whole.
What you share here Michael of your experience of true family is magical yet real and I agree having the Benhayon leading and showing us the way to be as a family is super inspiring for all of humanity.
A very powerful read for the truth that is shared and delivered in this blog. Thank you Michael for taking the time to write and share it with us all and showing us the bigger picture and the true meaning of the word;
family.
They say blood is thicker than water, but perhaps what those who live by such an edict should equally remember is that all blood is also equally the same.
‘It is now my absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with me by the Benhayons and the Walls’, to allow those I meet their own growth and learning.’ I like this Michael, and it’s very true. Our responsibility to give back all that we have been given is what true family is all about.
There is a reason for everything, and having had these very inspiring experiences of what true family is, you have a marker you are now able to share with everyone you meet… and to inspire many more to live as true family rather than as individuals… and in this way we change the world.
Your blog is an absolute inspiration Michael calling us to deepen our understanding and love for each and every person, knowing that we are all indeed one big family regardless of our blood line or which country we live in.
Michael I love the way you describe true family, and the Benhayons are definitely an amazing example of this.
Letting ourselves know how much love we have to give, is a great way to feel how amazing we are and what we have to offer humanity.
It is the example of the Benhayon family that inspired my to remain as friends with my ex-husband and his new partner – why should we be in antagonism and emotional unrest when a separation frees us to evolve? Anger is an old pattern that only serves to make us hard, and it is way better for our health to live in harmony with everyone.
Well said Carmel, and it sure is better for our health to live in harmony with everyone.
Did you ever experience that your parents loved one of your siblings more (or less) than yourself?
Everybody might be able to feel how loveless this expression is in truth.
Well, the same lovelessness is expressed, when my love (affection would be the correct word) is exclusively held for the ones of my own flock and less for ‘strangers’.
True family, what you have described here is just such a wonderful example of that. Being able to join a family that isn’t your birth family and be held in such love and acceptance, is very beautiful.
If we all held everyone in equal love we would not be able to harm another as we would be all one big true family not all about blood lines but about connection, love and respect for one another.
Awesome to read this, a beautiful experience of true family and what we have to offer. Imagine if all children and young adults were held in this same love and acceptance, there would be far less alienation and social isolation that is the common experience of so many growing up. Responsibility would then not be a ‘dirty word’ for teenagers, and everyone really, but rather offers a joyful understanding of the interdependency and interactivity of us all. In this we can all support each other, as we are all from the one family, the one brotherhood.
Isn’t it odd, how we hold people in ‘regard’ and say ‘I would never say that to my Mother’ or my father or brother. Yet it seems other people it is ok to treat with disregard? and isn’t it strange how we also fight and hurt those who stand the closest to us in life, in a way we would never be with somebody we meet just at work or in the street? What if these two things are linked, and that until we live knowing the true family you mention Michael, there will always be unloving behaviour? For the fact is everyone here deserves absolute equal care and consideration. I know in my heart, that I never want to hurt or harm any one of them again, or fight.
I have learned so much in my time knowing the Benhayon family about what it means to have a true family – unrestricted by blood or name or kin, but bound by love and commitment to living that love.
True family is such an amazing thing to experience – where dinner table conversations are full of purpose and love – no more silences or slamming doors or teenagers hiding in there rooms, simply a commitment to be together and build love.
Michael I could have kept reading, this whole topic would make a great book. Family is generally exclusive, yet your experiences show it doesn’t need to be, that our love and care can be extended equally to everyone. If every blood family in the world did this the whole of humanity would be in a truly beautiful place. Because we all have the capacity to live like this, it’s actually an achievable future.
I can feel how being attached to one version, interpretation of family, keeps us in separation, it prevents us from enjoying ourselves and other people fully, when we say this is our family and bring boundaries in of who comes in an out of that. It also happens with friends groups. Layers of boundaries and so protection, prevent true connection and intimacy.
True family, is not about who gave birth to you. I am feeling more truly that we are all one family. There are people I meet everyday who I connect and who connect with me, it is a feeling of universality and a knowing of ourselves as part of something greater than the self. That Is what I feel in this connection, we are all family.
Yes, encountering the Benhayon family for the first time is “absolutely ground breaking.” whatever one’s age!
True, my experience also, observing how they are with each other and everyone else, challenged many assumptions I had made about relationships. They are inspiration concerning true family.
It’s interesting how we cling to the traditional notion of family as an individual unit (which separates us from everyone else) and yet there is so much dysfunction within this unit. What are we actually clinging on to when we fail to understand that as a one humanity we are all one family?
When we love our parents more than others because of all they have done for us we dismiss our parents for who they are. If we love them for who they are this love encompasses all.
To be shown an example of true family Michael is definitely an opportunity to experience a key ingredient that we often mask as being offered through our blood lines only. It is inspiring to hear of a young man of your age understanding this potential and seeking to make a difference in your life.
True family is that which allows us to be and express who we truly are and no holding back to the constant pull of evolution, it surpasses “blood family” as it is not based on genetics but the equality of the love that we all are.
This blog offers a new meaning to what true family is about, an ever expanding truth about how family never needs to be about exclusion and that there need not be anyone in the world we cannot connect with.
True family is about oneness and bringing everyone together as equal , no barriers no divides.
Thank you Michael, for such a sweet account of what a true family is. When everyone is treated and valued as an equal then there is no need to ever be alone, and as the Benhayon and the Walls family have shown, true family encompasses everyone.
Often the worst comes out when families get together. It is like all the pent up tensions that we know are socially unacceptable are unleashed on those who we believe ‘have to’ love us and put up with it. There is nothing like this between the Benhayons, no taking for granted or dynamics. Instead there is the deepest love and respect, which is very inspiring.
I agree that embracing every person equally, as true family is one of the keys to returning humanity back to our natural harmonious and joyful state. This is because humanity is our true family.
Thank you for sharing your gorgeous story Michael. I loved what you noticed about how the Benhayons treated you like an equal part of the family even when you didn’t realise what true family is. I can feel from your writing that you will be offering this same quality to other people yet to know what true family means.
A lovely example of the equality of true love.
It is truly inspiring to experience moments where there is true love and brotherhood for each other. The Benhayon family are great models for us to observe no holding back in love, so we can realise the possibility this is for us all as well. Why on earth do we choose anything less?
Your story proves that we are much bigger and more universal than our biological family and that love itself is universal.
When true family could be anyone, it completely exposes the limited view we have of family as opposed to what it really means.
How grand it is to appreciate that True family extends far beyond blood, race and other divisive measures and to appreciate each and every person in our lives.
‘However, in the core of what true family stands for, lies the key to returning society to its joyous and harmonious state.’ We have a view that true family lies within our own nucleus…looking after me and my own, but what you share Michael changes this concept completely. The fact that we don’t have to be blood related to behave and care for others, as family is a game changer. What if every person was family? Would we not treat them differently? Society would certainly be different!
I am forever inspired by the Benhayon’s love for each other and the love they share with everyone they meet. -“there was NO holding back in LOVE. I was truly welcomed and embraced as an equal member of the family” So beauty-full to witness such unconditional love not bound by blood family or religion & race.
They epitomise what true brotherhood is all about- Love for self and one another.
A beautiful qualifier of true family. I’ve heard many people say that our true family is one we choose, however, this idea of family is just as exclusive as that of blood family – that in nominating your ‘true family’ you are selecting people who meet your criteria for how they should be or how they should relate to you. However, as Michael explains here, we are all each other’s family and true family is in the embracing of the people around in the equal love to those with whom you share blood.
The Benhayon’s are deeply inspiring how they hold this amazing love for each other and no matter who or what is going on around them this love is equally shared in every situation. No measuring or altering it for any particularly person – An Equal Love that has no boundaries. This is phenomenal to experience; to witness and feel, and I feel blessed to see that it is actually very possible. A choice.
Everyone we truly connect to is true family.
My family has only grown and grown in love, and continues to do so
This shows the truth of family, that family is not about blood lines or ties, but rather the openness that we can be with all and that we can have a true connection with anyone and everyone.
So true Lee and this openness starts with ourselves first – everything we are with ourselves is then naturally shared to that same depth and openness with others.
This is a gorgeous and loving blog!
So true Brendan. Embracing family beyond blood stood division, isolation and separation.
And also holding ourselves in that equal love allows others to feel that equality.
Gosh, imagine if we all connected to each other in life..
It’s amazing to read about your first dinner with the Benhayon family in the context of how little you actually knew them. With most families or social situations, there is a ‘getting to know/trust you’ period. But true love does not enforce those kind of barriers or conditions. True love is 100%, 24/7 for ALL.
If the beliefs and ideologies of ‘blood families’ did not exist, just imagine how different the world’s history would look like. Proof indeed of how destructive and separative the force of family is – and yet it is still held as almost sacrosanct by almost every one of us. Wake up time. This blog is showing us the true way for family to be lived.
‘The Love, Appreciation, Gratitude, Adoration and Respect I hold for every member of the Walls and Benhayon families is not an atom less than what I hold for my own mother’ – How amazing it is for those families you stayed with and connected with that you love them and appreciate them so dearly too.
Yes, it is very different from what one would normally expect either from families or house guests.
Isn’t it amazing what happens when we hold people in equal love whether they be our biological family or not. How wonderful to reconnect to the true essence of the word family and to know that this familial relationship is available to us all no matter where we are from or what we believe. Thank you Michael Brown for sharing your experience here.
Where there is equality within family it is true love; anything different there are investments, conditions, ideals and our hurts at play. For Michael to feel an absolute equal within the families is a beautiful reflection for him.
Michael I love what you have shared and with all the lovely experiences with the Benhayon and the Wall Family you can have your own true family (if you choose to) and open your doors of your house so that others can come and learn what a true family is about.
What a gorgeous sharing Michael – and it shows also your astute awareness of what you know deep within is true family. To have your own family to reflect things to you and then to have other families to reflect other things to us is so needed for us all. Essentially we are all one big family as we have the capacity to reflect to everyone our qualities – qualities that are unique and all an equally important piece of the puzzle!
True family breaks down walls and builds unity and connection amongst us all; it is a much needed quality.
I have also experienced true family as you have described Michael. Sometimes we may have a deeper connection to people outside of our blood family and this is more than okay. The ideals and beliefs we hold as a society around what family is is thick. Extending the love and care we have for others and embracing others is allowing more love in our lives to be expressed and received.
Me too. Truly everyone can be considered family and in truth it had no boundaries.
‘And so when I reflect on what true family is, in my bones I know it is not blood bound or placenta promised’ – My whole life I felt that the word ‘family’ the way we traditionally see it is very limited and with unnatural boundries and obligations – today I know family to be something much bigger and am forever amazed to learn that there is no limit to family, that in fact we are all one big family.
I have also found that love or true love, holds all of humanity in an equality!
I am beginning to realise the grandeur that is true family, once you connect to it you realise that we are all the same, we are all one family. I have nearly 40 staff working for me now and they have all become like sons and daughters to me, blood is very limiting but connection allows all that are willing to go there to be welcomed with open arms.
That’s a beautiful sharing Sarah and of deep truth. There are no boundaries with family. I can relate to what you say as I felt this in the classroom when I had my own class everyday. However this year so far I have been visiting many schools doing relief work and every different group of children I work with each day feel like family to me. It’s about the way we hold ourselves, are open and how we hold and care for others with no boundaries.
It is because we see each other as separate that we live in a world where we are disconnected from one another and each battling on our own. We strive to provide for our immediate family, occasionally helping those that we deem either need our help or are worthy of our help but as far as recognising that everyone is our brother, then we are light years away from this.
Thank you for sharing this beautiful account of your experience and connection to what true family means.
When I first came to the work, what stood out for me was the immediate feeling of family and care within the community. Even more so, which you touched on, was seeing the whole Benhayon family together, including his ex wife and her husband. It was so beautiful to see their interactions and connections with each other and in no way did I feel any conflict, jealously or ‘putting on a face/show pretending for the crowd’
Three years later I can say without any hesitance that the quality I first saw is still evident, though stronger and even more beautiful. The Benhayons, along with many other families within the student body continue to confirm to me what I feel in my heart of what true family is. Connection from the heart, not just blood and provide a constant inspiration of growing family and the beautiful quality it brings to life
It is far more normal for an ex wife and a current wife to end up in a shouting match than a friendship, which is such a reflection of how fragmented our society has become. We no longer see ourselves as brothers, we see ourselves as individuals competing for everything, including our partners.
I agree, there is a feeling of community and family an openness to seeing you as equal when I first attended a presentation with Universal Medicine. It wasn’t forced or pressured, it felt like an acceptance the we are all equal, divine and unique and we all have our part of the whole, family. A universal family.
Through the Student Body of Universal Medicine, I have come to know what true family is. True family is a love that extends beyond blood family, a love that invites everyone in, that doesn’t discriminate, that is beholding, that knows that we have each others back regardless of what is presented. It is unconditional and spans over life times.
After experiencing all of this Michael, you will be – should you choose to be – an amazing Husband and Dad.
Your article Michael and the many comments that have followed are a celebration of true family, what we all long for and which is so easily accessible when we base our lives on truth, honesty and love.
True family brings such equality or brotherhood that I feel blessed to know the Benhayons, Browns, Walls and everyone else whom I have ever met!
The truth of family is that we are all family to one another when we open our hearts to each other.
True Family is one of energy and never skin colour, blood or race.
‘And so when I reflect on what true family is, in my bones I know it is not blood bound or placenta promised, as the experiences I have had with the Benhayon family and the Walls family have shown me. I have been truly blessed to have had these exposures in my life.’ very beautifully said Michael.
Michael when I read your account of sitting down to dinner with the Benhayon family, I felt my heart physically ache. Oh my goodness how far have we allowed ourselves to get from a way of living that we all know so well, an all inclusive way of living that sees us all as part of the one united love that we actually are.
And Michael it is a blessing for these families to have you in their mix. Many times I have come to appreciate how valuable others can be within our family dynamic – every single person is a part of the jigsaw and every reflection has something to show us.
A true family is one that supports its members to embody and, if needed, to return to a way of moving that helps to evolve.
To be truly supported in this way as a teenager is such a valuable thing. To be given the freedom to make your own choices and asked to be responsible for those choices at the same time is surely the best gift and education we could give anyone, especially our youth.
To come into a shop and being supported by a retail supervisor who considers me part of his family must be a gorgeous shopping experience.
Love has no limits, no boundaries, no start and no end ….. I am appreciating more and more that to moderate how I am with different people is to put boundaries in where they don’t belong. To hold back on my love in any way with others means I’m also holding back on my love for myself.
What is so amazing and very inspiring to observe is how whatever happens in the Benhayon family, it just gets bigger and produces even more love. Even though Serge Benhayon is no longer married to his first wife, their relationship is still very strong and this is so for all the family members: everyone is accepted, respected, appreciated and cherished, ex-partners and their new partners equally included, no shame, no blame just a bigger family.
I love the sentence “To be treated as an absolute equal and to the same extent a vital part of the family, allowed me growth beyond growth and learning that no training course or higher education facility could provide.” as this is clearly reflecting what is so needed for us to grow – equalness. From the equalness we experience safety and from that safety we are able to open up and evolve. This is so greatly lacking in society these days where we seem to behave in so many ways, exept our own way – without taking the time to be honest and examine the effects of these ill choices that we make. School, friends, clubs etc., everywhere we should (and could) be treated this tender way. Thank you tender Michael.
I am currently spending time with my nieces and am reminded to treat them like my own children, feeling responsible to support them with their daily tasks and connect with them in a way that shows them how dear they are to me.
We as a society have made family something exclusive, governed by blood bond. Yet often people can be very mean and have fights with family and it is almost an excuse to be less caring at times with family. This is totally different from what you share is family, it is the way we are with each other with deep respect and love, which makes so much more sense.
Thank you for this blog Michael. If everyone relates to others the way you have described here, “gently and super lovingly supporting” each other “to be able to make choices and to take care of all that needed to be felt, read, appreciated, respected, understood and lived”, it would transform every relationship and expand the whole of humanity to one big true family.
I moved away from home earlier this year and was welcomed into a new family that i knew already as friends but we where not super close. In the few months with them before i moved into my permanent living arrangement I got an amazing opportunity to form a family unit with these people – to learn and grow and express and love them as my equal family and it was amazing.
Your experience proves that true family runs deeper than any blood lines or legality, it is love and love alone than can ever bind a true family together.
Love the picture of you and Miranda and I can’t but smile when I look at the picture of you and the Walls’ – there is a natural glow and shine that cannot be denied, no doubt you are one family.
I agree Eva the photograph of the Walls family (including Michael) look very together as one family. In fact if Michael had not indicated which one he was in the photo, you would not know he was the one who was not an original blood family member, he looks so at home with them all!
From speaking to friends and colleagues it is clear that some of the biggest issues that people have are to do with family and hurt that is carried from a variety of experiences. We must know instinctively what true family means otherwise how can we be hurt by families that have never offered this to us. There is so much healing that can be done by working on family stuff.
‘To be treated as an absolute equal and to the same extent a vital part of the family, allowed me growth beyond growth and learning that no training course or higher education facility could provide.’ I know what you mean here Michael the vastness we can learn from each other far supersedes any amount of knowledge we accumulate.
An amazing opportunity to question and deconstruct the ‘rules’ about family and how they inform the way we live in isolation from one another. Thank you, Michael.
We can learn so much from connecting with other people and families. The love we share and standards we hold within our households can be truly inspirational, however if we keep the love insular and only for members of our biological family then it’s impossible to establish true harmony and brotherhood.
Michael when I say that your words are ‘heartfelt’, I literally mean that I could feel them in my heart.
There can be no greater feeling than to be accepted into a harmonious group of people with joy. This is what we can all return to when we come back to who we truly are.. simply love.
I love the way you were taken into the Wall’s family and treated like one of their own, and that this meant being pulled up when your behaviour was unacceptable as well as being included in everything else. No politeness or niceness, just pure love.
To have experienced “True Family” at such a young age and recognize it is such a wonderful tribute to all concerned. The difference this has made in your life as you describe this experience is tremendous growth concerning the way of True Brotherhood here on Earth, as it is meant to be.
“In the core of what true family stands for, lies the key to returning society to its joyous and harmonious state.” This is so true as the family is a microcosm of society and therefore of humanity, which is one family.
Yes, Michael, you certainly look and feel like ‘one of the family’ in the picture above. What a blessing to grow up without the usual ideals and beliefs about what family life should look like. It has opened your heart to all people, so that you now can treat everyone with the same respect and enjoy being loved and having beautiful relationships all over the world.
“True family is a phrase often used fraudulently and not applied in its fullest sense. However, in the core of what true family stands for, lies the key to returning society to its joyous and harmonious state.” – this says it all Michael! Thank you for a brilliant and beautiful blog the holds the key to brotherhood!
Michael you are absolutely spot on, family is so much more than blood bound, it’s everyone you share love with, and so any human being can be family. I love how you look a 100% part of the family you stayed with – a testament to both the way you live and love and respect people and also a massive testament to their love too.
This is a timely reminder to truly appreciate, and to treat all others equally – thank you Michael.
This is a beautiful blog and deeply inspiring to treat everyone as family who stays with me.
The love and appreciation you feel for these families is so tangible Michael – so very open and fully expressed. And as you say, there is then the responsibility of offering this same quality to all others equally so. It is so very encouraging to read of a young person so inspired to bring this to the world.
To read of so much appreciation from a young man is very inspiring indeed. I was going to say there aren’t many teenagers who truly, deeply appreciate what they are being offered these days… but then there are many people of all ages who don’t appreciate what is on offer for them. True appreciation is certainly a quality we need to honour in our society today.
This is so Gorgeous to read! What if this would be our ‘standard’. Not as a must, but as an accepted true marker that we can work towards. All together. That would rock the world and gives us common ground – literally, a foundation to build a family home for us all. A world where every single one feels welcome and adored. Wow!
Feeling your wisdom in the experience you share also makes it clear that age has nothing to do with the getting of wisdom. What it is apparent is that when we let go of the pictures and beliefs of how something should be we are open to the understanding and teachings that are present in every experience and we have a choice to how we accept and appreciate what is before us or not. This is very wise and doesn’t come with any hooks that people should be a certain way or particular ‘anything or anyone’.
Looking at the photo of you with the Walls’ family Michael, you wouldn’t know that you are not related by blood. This isn’t about looking the same, but more of a feeling that you are completely held and included and not separate from any of the rest of the family. A beautiful picture of what is true family.
I love that the family you came to have this experience with Michael are called the Walls. There could not be a more appropriate name. For life is here for us to see, there are no actual divisions between you and me and the 7 billion others who live here. We are deeply connected in the most intimate way. To live knowing and feeling this in your heart is how we are designed to be.
I’m sitting on a balcony in Hamburg and the host couple have provided me with room for three nights. I was touched by the welcome, level of detail and care taken to lovingly prepare my room and make sure I have everything I needed. I have never met them before, but feel as if I’ve known them for years and been invited into my family home.
I have been honoured to have witnessed closely the family relationships of the Benhayon’s, and how the love is shared with all and not just those who share blood and family name. It has taught me the value of true family, that love is not bound by who your related to.
“To be treated as an absolute equal and to the same extent a vital part of the family, allowed me growth beyond growth and learning that no training course or higher education facility could provide.”
Wow Michael this is such a huge statement, when we are met with love and simply allowed to be ourselves, it builds a relationship with self and what that feels like with others, which is where true inner confidence comes from.
Absolutely love the family photo…..keep going back to it, you are beaming love for all who want to be embraced, as you did with Michael.
I appreciate you presenting here that part of true family is supporting each other to grow in an encouraging way.
Thankyou Michael. The more one opens their heart, the more one realises that love transcends the shackles of what we call “family” and is much more inclusive than we could ever have imagined. In fact, there is no one that true loves leaves by the wayside, for it cannot. It is all embracing, as a fire with no end.
True family certainly defies the picture of what we have allowed our perception of family to be. It transcends the defined and constrained box we have put ourselves in – looking after “you and yours” – so that “you and yours” becomes everyone on the planet – meeting everyone in the same love and not holding back because of blood lines.
When we invest in having a super ‘close-knit’ family and dedicate ourselves to caring for them beyond our normal standard of care of others, this can actually reduce our potential to have a greater expanded family. As Michael has shared in this blog, there is so much joy in sharing our love with everyone and when we do open up to others and don’t ‘keep’ our attention and care for those genetically related to us then our true family can grow and grow.
Love, Integrity and Respect are the most beautiful qualities that we can hold each other in and is to shared equally with all in all area’s of our lives. This is what you are sharing Michael that in these two families it was super strong and that it couldn’t be like this if they weren’t living this every where in their lives.
It is exactly these examples of what family means – beyond the confines and conflicts of a family of origin, that show us a truly universal way to be with each other. Nothing is placed as greater importance than the equal essence of the other.
“It is now my absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with me by the Benhayons and the Walls’, to allow those I meet their own growth and learning.” l hear you Michael, this was and is my experience of both families. Thank you for this blog it has reminded me to hold that same level of responsibility towards all others. True Family.
The sense of inclusiveness and love that you experienced from both families you have mentioned is deeply touching.
I love the photo of you with the Walls family Michael. Every single person has a genuine smile and an immensely steady quality within them, I can feel a true joy of life and love. There is a simply unity amongst you all and its a quality that I can feel is equally shared with everyone you meet, not kept for a few, but shared with all, from a genuine knowing that everyone we know and meet are all true family.
Yes indeed, Michael. When we limit our experience of family to those we have grown up with in our birth family, we miss out on a more expanded way of being that holds all others as equally from the same source of love. Anyone we connect with in the various aspects of our lives can be seen and felt as family, when we open our hearts and share our lives with them.
Michael, this is very beautiful to read, I can feel from this how we are all true family whether blood related or not, the more I allow myself to be open to this the closer my relationships become with people as I allow this love and intimacy with people that I have not previously allowed, this is very lovely and changes how I see people and life.
The appreciation and love Michael has for the Benhayon and Walls family is absolutely gorgeous to read, a beautiful example clearly reflecting to us that essentially we are all family.
Yes, indeed, true family is not about blood and genes – it is about love, connection, oneness and responsibility. In the end we (humanity) are all one huge family.
When there is such joy expressed as seen on this pictures, the word family is honored and confirmed.
What an awesome foundation to go forward from in life, and a deeply freeing one – for in being open to such amazing relationships in our lives, we realise that we never need demand nor expect any ‘one’ (or perhaps ‘two’ as in the case of our parents in particular) need be ‘everything’ to us – such expectation only curbs our potential to know ourselves and truly love, connect and learn from each other.
The solidity of truth is in every word of this blog. Thank-you Michael.
I couldn’t agree more – the concept of the ‘nuclear family’ and ‘blood family’ has kept us from truly embracing each other and realising that insularness has not held us in any great stead societally. To meet and be embraced by the families you have experienced this with here, is how we all can be with each other.
Being held in equality is what allows us to be exactly who we are without fear or judgement and it opens up space for learning and evolving together. This is the love shared by true family and one that binds us all.
I feel that sense of family with people in my life that are not related by blood. It has taken some time for me to even embrace this expanded definition of family and it is like expanding my heart and letting more people in – not just those that are in my bloodline.
Thank you Michael your article is so beautiful to read, what a blessing for you to feel and live with the Benhayons and the Walls and be part of what a true family life is all about, being held in deep love and equality, we are all of one blood and children of the one God, all one big family of humanity.
If we would consider everyone True Family, how different would our communities then be. I’m realising that the poor and homeless are definitely also my concern and not only of the government… As well as every child would be treated the same as I treat my own. We’ve created great structures, but in a matter of fact, we’ve created these structures so we can take a blind eye on what truly happens. With many people in our society that don’t feel any responsibility, let alone care. And is it the system to blame, or the people? Or is it us that are not living in line with our true nature, natural love and care for everyone.
‘However, in the core of what true family stands for, lies the key to returning society to its joyous and harmonious state’ – the underlying manipulation of the definition of family and it’s relationship to being successful and whole undermines what is possible when we connect to the true meaning of Family globally. Love, integrity and respect is to be lived in all relationships and as you have written Michael this is the key to returning society to its joyous and harmonious state.
This is how it ought to be always, with all of us. The notion of my family, kept within the restricted parameters of my home bound by the blood ties we share amongst ourselves has the seed of keeping us separate — the irony of it all of course as we try and bind ourselves together in little units so as not to feel this. We are all of the one family and when we open up the doors of our home to another, there ought to be the same love, warmth and care with them as there is with everyone else — otherwise family is rendered nought.
If we rely only on biological connections to put us into the family category, it does not guarantee relationships based on love, equality, integrity and respect. I work in an industry where there vulnerable families experience abuse, i see it out there in the community and i have seen it in my own backyard where biological ties does not necessarily bring ‘true family’.
Michael you have described the living qualities of true family, i wonder if we even experience these qualities in some or our own biological families?
‘It is now my absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with me by the Benhayons and the Walls’, to allow those I meet their own growth and learning.
It is these qualities that bring together true family way beyond biological ties.
“In the core of what true family stands for, lies the key to returning society to its joyous and harmonious state.” True family unites all of humanity regardless of blood and borders.
I am blessed to be surrounded by those who I feel in my bones to be family in the best ways of being truly connected through time and space with no boundaries.
“. . .in the core of what true family stands for, lies the key to returning society to its joyous and harmonious state.” Absolutely true Michael. True family is not exclusive, everyone is treated as an equal in the knowledge that we all hold a divine potential, and if we get stuck, members will offer support with understanding and no judgment or sympathy.
My feelings are also that our family is Universal in every aspect and so we have not even a thought other than love. Love has ‘no’ criticism; sympathy, judgment, frustration or critique for true family is based on love. So for me being a Student of The Livingness I am, still learning, to hold all of humanity with total equal-ness in that love. My past thoughts have not always been so loving and so I can still get slightly frustrated with others but with the understanding about how I can be love and living love to the best of my ability so the thoughts do not have any purchase and are unable to take root.
Michael, thank you for sharing your story with us – it shows the potential we all have to let go of our idea of family so it is not a restricted concept but an open ended way of life which includes everyone, not just those related to us. The Benhayons and the Walls family are wonderful role models demonstrating that it is possible to live, not as ‘extended’ family but as ‘expanded’ family.
The Benhayon family is a lovely example of what a true expanded family can be. Open to all, equal and loving with all.
This blog shows that family can be so much more than blood relations and that it is possible to support other people who are not blood related in the same way we would for blood family. The facts is we are all the same, and if we treat everyone equally then we live this fact. So a mother pulling up a child who is not her own because it is loving to do so and you are calling that child into account is actually very supportive and breaks the illusion of needing to be blood related to pull people up. A great illusion breaker.
Love your description of true family! If we viewed everything as family, work family, home family, extended family. Bus family ect, we would soon see the details of how we play against each other in human life. This has detrimental effects as true family is about bringing everyone up to their highest.
What you have found Michael feels like the most natural and normal way to be with one’s family and is the way forward for all of us – every single one of us all over the world. How beautiful that you have realised this at so young an age and can pass this experience on to others – what a blessing to share.
Michael, your expression is truly inspiring and so alive and vibrant. Thank you for sharing how true family is equally felt and attainable with all we interact with in our day. It is a quality of interaction we actually crave.
This blog gives me goose bumps. I feel that in this world we have lost the true quality of ‘family life’ to such an extent that it may even be difficult to believe the Loving family experiences Michael describes here… but I know it is True because I know the Benhayon’s and I have ‘true family’ members also.
As Michael says it is a responsibility, once we know this kind of love, support and inclusion, to share it as we all need and deserve to know this once again.
The photo tells its own story. It looks like a family photo, which of course it is in its true sense. You all look at ease and like you’re really enjoying the experience of being together. It’s very gorgeous to see.
It is paramount in communities that we open up to the concept of family extending beyond our bloodlines. There are many people who do not have ‘blood’ family all of whom deserve this level of connection as a basic form of support in life.
Michael this is truly inspirational. You sharing the effects of being treated as true family reminds us all of the power of love and equality.
Thank you, Michael, for sharing your experiences of true family over the years and what it has allowed you to open yourself up to in terms of seeing the responsibility for offering this reflection of love to those around you. What a blessing to have such great connections, that we can eternally deepen and learn from.
Thanks to knowing the Benahyon family and feeling the love they share with each other and with everyone they meet, I have been able to take home to my family and those I live and worth with, a greater level of love and more of me – the real me that would otherwise be held back and not shared.
Beautiful sharing Michael thank you. It just goes to show that ideals and beliefs we hold about ‘blood family’ are clearly outdated, and so much more can be felt and shared when we extend the love to others too.
What you have experienced with the Walls and the Benhayon is so rare in our current society because what I have witnessed in most families is actually not always of high integrity, loving or harmonious. These two families are amazing role models for humanity reflecting what true family means. Like you’ve shared, once we have experienced true family it is our responsibility to live it and share this level of love and integrity with others.
Thank you Michael for what you have shared here as it is these stories that are a testimony of what true family is when we embrace the expansiveness of the Love that is present within every member of our community. True love is when we extend our Love outside our immediate family and into the community we are part of; we then will discover that our true family is far greater, wiser, and stronger that we could ever imagine and that we all have an immense amount of wisdom, Love and care to share with each other.
Imagine what the world would be like if we all welcomed others into our family with total love and acceptance, and they are loved in the same way as our blood family. I feel this world would be a very different place in which to live!
Fabulous to have that experience of family Michael. I have fond memories growing up of staying with friends families and how great a learning it was to see another family in operation and to be included as part of it during my stay. And this is not something that has to be restricted to us as children, we can provide this as adults to each other and offer a different perspective of what being in family means.
This is gorgeous Michael, and a brilliant expose on how genetics mean very little when it comes to who is in our family; although we love and tend to be close with our biological parents, siblings and relatives, so too can we extend our family and feel the same with others. Our family can extend across countries, and I can certainly say from experience that I have family living all over the world who I love equally to those that I live with.
It is so so expansive to have that family all around the world that you can be there for – and be held by. No price can be put on that
Thank you for your beautiful article Michael which shares with the world what I too have come to know, that true family actually is. I could feel how you were held in such love, and supported unconditionally by the Walls family; what a most priceless life experience for you now to share with others.
Michael it is gorgeous to read the incredible appreciation you share here, not for some “nice gap year” but for your and everyones growth and evolution. “To be treated as an absolute equal and to the same extent a vital part of the family, allowed me growth beyond growth and learning that no training course or higher education facility could provide.” this growth, development and this purpose shows us what true family is all about.
Thank you Michael for a beautiful sharing of true family. As you say family is not tied to blood so in fact all of humanity is one family. To realise and connect to this requires each of us to be open in ourselves and in our hearts as you demonstrate you did with the Benhayons and Walls – love can be offered but we have to be open to receive and return it.
The ideals and notions around family are the cause for a lot of suffering we create and endure, often in the belief of doing right and good or simply accepting that´s what it is. That we need to use the term TRUE family is indicating of this. When we substitute or closely relate ‘family’ with ‘love’, whereby both terms need to be appendixed with TRUE due to the bastardization of words and their meaning, we will get to see what family in truth is just as Michael has beautifully experienced with the Benhayon and Walls family.
“I was truly welcomed and embraced as an equal member of the family.” This is an experience that is not just for an elite few Michael because you have shown us that this is the experience of everyone who cares to lovingly join a Benhayon family gathering. And being an equal member of the family means that we will be loved 100%, appreciated in full for who we naturally are and pulled back on course when we stray from our exquisitely divine expression. We all have the capacity to hold everyone in True Family in the knowing that the blood that runs through our veins is all the same colour, the divine essence inside us is exactly the same.
“However, in the core of what true family stands for, lies the key to returning society to its joyous and harmonious state.” Humanity has a lot to learn from your blog Michael. How many of us live in a truly joyous harmonious state, and how many families are able to reflect this on a daily basis? I know the more I am able to live harmoniously the more my family are able to feel this. The Benhayon family offer an amazing reflection for this, I have learnt so much about what a true family is by observing how they are with each other.
“In the core of what true family stands for, lies the key to returning society to its joyous and harmonious state.” This is huge Michael. You show through your experience that you were supported and treated equally by two families as you were by your own. We are all one big family and we can treat each other as such, even if we are not related through blood ties. The love can be the same.
How many kids are told that they have to love their parents above all?
How many parents are told that they have to love their kids above all?
Is it possible for LOVE to set someone above others?
Blazing the trail for us to review how we view family; expanding our understanding to one day realise that we are all one family, all sons of God, no segregation by blood, culture, religion or nationality… thank you, Michael.
True family are the people who happen to be in your shared space. Blood or not. It could be the people you are sharing the table with at a cafe or the seat on a bus. Love respect and consideration is always present.
There can be very strong patterns within families with people taking on certain roles that are not supportive for the individuals or the group as a whole – reading your blog, Michael, has prompted me to feel, with honesty, how I am within my own family and I thank you for the gift this healing is bringing.
When Love is the foundation of the way we live there are no conditions, ideals, beliefs or borders that restrict us from who we should share our Love with. As through the eyes of the heart we are all equal brothers and sisters in Love, not one greater of lesser than another and not one deserving more Love than another.
What a powerful statement to remind us all of the Brotherhood that is possible and waiting to be lived in the communities we are a part of when love is at the core of our relationships – ‘in the core of what true family stands for, lies the key to returning society to its joyous and harmonious state.’ Thank you Michael.
Thank you for sharing your experience what true family is all about.
It blows the illusionary phrase to pieces, ‘blood is thicker than water’.
This is my experience also with the Benhayon family and feel in my heart humanity is our family and not just by a selected few by blood.
Michael, what a wonderful sharing of how when we are treated as an equal, no matter what the age, there is growth, respect, appreciation and love developed within for all involved. What a wonderful experience for all involved and truly inspiring for many reading your blog, myself included.
A very beautiful expression of true family Michael;
“…when I reflect on what true family is, in my bones I know it is not blood bound or placenta promised…”
Treating everyone like true family and letting them in, all of the time, is the key to true family relationships.
Thank you Michael for sharing such a beautiful unfolding.
To live the quality of true family in life is a choice for each person to make; and not a something that is bestowed to some and not others.
There can be strong ideas that ‘family ‘ is those bounded by the same surname, but your blog clearly shows that ‘true family’ extends well beyond this boundary. As love knows no boarder, then true family has no distinction to what surname, race, colour or creed one is… We are one enormous family here on earth.
True family is a whole other level of development – not only can it be found with anyone, but it speaks of a harmony rarely present in groups of any kind.
Thanks for sharing your experience Michael. If we all welcomed each other in this way we would know true family, true community and true brotherliness.
Thank you Michael for a great sharing of what true family is all about, in our society we place so much more emphasis on our blood family leaving behind potential connections with others that might not offer us the comfort of life and get away with it but a constant pull to evolve and be more of who we truly are and that is worth more than what we ever imagine to be.
Reading your article I can feel that this is exactly how it should be, how we innately know it ought to be – we are all the same except for a few superficial, visible to the external eyes differences and those two families, the Benhayons and the Walls, have certainly allowed you to experience that.
What an amazing experience you were given Michael, and what a great choice you made to accept what was on offer for you. To know that regardless of the fact you were on the other side of the world, you felt loved and honoured and accepted as a member of both the Benhayon family and the Walls family, really is a testament to both families and to you. How wonderful to know that true family can extend far beyond that of any biological ties if we are prepared to have true realtionships with ourselves and others.
The Benhayon’s where also for me the start of knowing true family, and since meeting them I have gotten to live with other families and move out and develop and learn by being a part of a different household and there has been such a massive learning with that, growing as a person by developing those relationships with others based on the love and inspiration of the Benhayon family.
Well said Doug, if the blood family actually is willing to share love with us, then that’s awesome, but if for some reason they don’t, then that’s ok, as they are not the only people we can share love with.In blood families many often accept behaviour that’s far from loving, just because we’re ‘related’. This is not true and stunts our own growth.
Yes I agree, I have seen that; within family people can take each other for granted, and allow and put up with unloving behaviour because they are ‘family’.
What a great read Michael Brown, so inspiring and profound what you share. Looking at family in this way is so liberating and freeing, asking everybody to be more responsible, and at the same time allowing us all to share love with everybody, not just blood relatives or partners. I love how you write and can feel your commitment to now living that expanded way of family in your own life to the fullest.
What you’ve shared here is something I absolutely knew was possible deep in my bones when I was growing up. In saying that, when I read about your experience, I’m torn between my thoughts of “yes, I know that is possible and I know for a fact it’s true”, and “yeah, but how rare is that, hardly anyone will ever experience that”. What is so interesting about this thought process is how quickly I shut down the possibility of it being a growing way of being. What this shows me, is that I’m living through the hurts of the disharmony I grew up in, and holding on to that, and using what I know to be true to be a mere fantasy of a life that only other people might experience. This is an absolute lie. This experience you’ve shared is available to all. It is purely a matter of saying yes to it and also simply living it for myself.
What a blessing indeed Michael and as you say no education or university can teach you these incredibly valuable learnings in life that strengthen you as the Man that you are here to be.
So unbelievably awesome to read you express your love and appreciation for the people in your life Michael. It would have been said several times before, but a young man of your age to have such awareness and confidence to truly express like that is refreshing beyond words. Go you! What you bring to all those you meet is pure gold.
My daughter has gone to stay with friends whilst my husband had an operation but if I was to write this correctly she has gone to stay with family, people I trust 100% who live in away that I know she will part of the family and not treated as a guest, but valued and honoured for her place now in the family while she stays. My daughter also is amazing at teaching me that everyone is our family, she knows this to her bones to be true. What an amazing thing to really feel.
Since I started attending courses and presentations by Serge Benhayon, my true family has grown. I have always been open to people but there was a selection, some could be this close and yet others were on the outside in a way and that no longer exists. Today my true family is much bigger than I ever imagined and the support and love that is there with each other is so precious and I so appreciate it.
Thank you for sharing this Michael. For me, true family is those who we connect with and share our lives with. This is open to all if we allow and not restricted to blood lines. We have a shared equality and it is possible to live this equality with all of humanity without discrimination along genetic lines.
Society reinforces and glorifies blood family relationships and uses the success or failure of these to measure the value we hold for ours selves based on this. When we feel the truth of the depth of family we are truly a part of and open to allowing true brotherhood to be experienced rather than being locked into being less – our whole being expands in love and awareness. Thank you Michael for confirming the choices we all have in relationship and what is possible.
“…in the core of what true family stands for, lies the key to returning society to its joyous and harmonious state.” – I agree Michael, true family breaks down protective walls and borders and brings back true connection and love amongst us all.
True family is not bound by blood ties, nor by marriage vows. True family is letting people in and treating everyone like family all of the time. This can at times feel very challenging to do, but helps us break down the ideals and beliefs that we are all separate. Thank you Michael for your refreshing take on family!
I love how you share about Katie bringing back banana bread and making sure you were included Michael. It’s these little touches that allow us to feel a part of rather than in some way excluded. I also love how you describe being pulled up for off behaviour and I can feel how loving and supportive you found it as it was no different to being loved and supported by your own blood mother. So tell me do you have the recipe for this delicious sounding banana bread?
Why would we treat people differently in the first place? We’re all deeply sensitive, we’re all got our qualities, we’re all innately deeply loving and we’re nearly all struggling with life at times. Let alone that no one, absolutely no one is perfect. In our hearts lies the love for all. Due to the choices to not connect to our hearts, we’re missing not only out on ourselves, but also on the fact that we’re able to feel each and everyone’s love, demonstrating the fact that we’re indeed all family.
In contrast to what most understand and experience ‘family’ as (i.e. blood related etc), this is an awesome example of sharing a lived experience of ‘true family’ which is encompassing, expansive and all about brotherhood.
Dining with true family is a feast in which the love we share nourishes us more than the food that we eat.
Incredibly gorgeous and powerful Michael. Your lived experience of true family and sharing this understanding is re-printing images that many hold onto. It’s the images and pre-conceived ideas that shut us out of the loving appreciation for each person in their essence.
The testament to being treated as family when staying with someone is the ‘you’re not a guest’ factor and living with them as equal members of the family for the lovely things (like banana bread :)) but also when a pull up is needed. That is love. Not making allowances or excusing bad behaviour for someone because they are a guest.
What a wonderful understanding about ‘true family’ has been offered by your experiences with the Benhayon’s and the Wall’s. Not only did you witness a remarkable depth of love and honouring of each person with everyone else, but you were also unequivocally included and held as an absolute equal member. And I love that fact that this level of care includes flagging and being pulled up if there is a mismatch in behaviour. This shows that it is not about making it cosy and being nice to one another, but about truly loving, appreciating, honouring and supporting each other to grow and evolve.
‘…in the core of what true family stands for, lies the key to returning society to its joyous and harmonious state.’ After reading this article and knowing what I know true family to be I couldn’t agree more. It’s the holding each other in love, equally and without exception.
So often I’ve heard, ‘ they’re just like family.’ Though this phase expresses the close connection they feel with someone there is still an element of this is the exception, the anomaly, to feel someone is so close they are like family. But there is still a segregation between who are considered family and who are not, and a definition of what it is that earns one the merit of being considered family also what it would be to fall from this accolade. All very different to being family whoever you are, however you act. Like in any family abusive ways would not be accepted but the person would never be excluded only understood and asked like everyone to be respectful. This is indeed how society can grow into being in harmony.
What a solid foundation of true family to take out to life and share with others Michael. Thank you for this great blog.
Such a beautiful blog Michael. “It is now my absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with me by the Benhayons and the Walls’, to allow those I meet their own growth and learning.” True family – not bound by blood. Thank you for sharing.
Pictures as they say are worth a thousand words and there is more then a thousand words between the photos of you on this blog Michael. You look like a completely different person and for the better I might add. Obviously the years of doing what you are doing have been great for you. You are talking about ‘true family’ and with the recipe you have for yourself and the way you are it’s more then working for you, thank you.
‘During my time staying with the Walls’ I was never treated as a guest, an ‘outsider’, a person who might come and go…’ I love this, I find it interesting how it is seen to be loving to treat someone as guests, when truth is we all yearn to be part of, whether that be taking equal responsibility or feeling included in every sense – in fact being a guest keeps us separated.
Great Blog Michael, I love that since being privy to true family that you see it is as your responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with you. This is an inspiration for others to give back, knowing that what ever we are given is never just for our self but to share with all.
It’s super simple; we are all the sons of God, so we are all one family. Anything that is lived less is a denial of our true ancestry.
True family includes us all. I know that the friends I have and the colleagues and students I work with are just as much my family as my own family. I love the kids I work with just as much as my own, and there is no difference in how I relate to them.
‘To be treated as an absolute equal and to the same extent a vital part of the family, allowed me growth beyond growth and learning that no training course or higher education facility could provide.’ How we live has such a huge impact on others. I don’t feel we appreciate this way near enough. Adults are just like big children and they copy just as much as children do taking on others behaviours sometimes without realising it at all. This happens so fast and is completely different from being told what is right or wrong or what we need to learn to pass an exam.
Golly gosh. The absolute polar opposite of what so many live. “Family” can be one of the most separative systems in society if not lived in the true way and the problem is that the untrue way of living family is also entirely supported by organised religion and endless cultural and spiritual ideologies. It is also supported, perhaps most powerfully, by our hurts – hurts that don’t allow us to be open to the equality and love that is so gloriously expressed in this blog. For example – how amazing of Michael’s blood parents to open their arms and hearts to other “mothers and fathers” supporting their son. Massive respect and appreciation for that. Stunning.
Gorgeous Michael, what you share here in all its simplicity is not so common to see in our society today and yet it is as natural and innate to us as the stars sit in the sky. To have such markers of true family depicts to us more and more not only what is true but what is always possible and where we are heading to in the future, as families like those you speak of lead the way, to another way, which is in fact our truly normal way.
This is a very touching blog Michael. Your experiences really show what true family is and not what we have believed it to be. I have never met the Walls family, but I would love to…oh my gosh their beauty and harmony fly out of their photograph!
This is a beautiful account of what true family truly is. “in the core of what true family stands for, lies the key to returning society to its joyous and harmonious state.”
Michael, I so enjoyed reading your blog. We are now in the new era of the expanded family. For over 8 years now I have lived with two friends who are well and truly my family. People at work will often say to me that it must be sad having no family here in Australia but I tell them that I have a huge expanded family, that my friends are my family and that for me there is simply no difference. The whole of humanity is one big family, it is just that most people do not realize it yet.
The authority of a lived experience of true family… thank you, Elizabeth.
So beautifully expressed Michael, an account of true family, absolutely.
Michael, you are confirming, in a very beautiful way, that it takes a village to raise a child 🙂
You can see the connection in the Wall’s photograph, the long held love for one another and the understanding that no matter the country or family we are born into, the essence is equal and therefore of the same one family.
A powerful understanding of what true family is and something we can all learn from. We still live in a world where family is about blood family, tradition and culture so what you bring to the table Michael is something we can all learn from. “And so when I reflect on what true family is, in my bones I know it is not blood bound or placenta promised, as the experiences I have had with the Benhayon family and the Walls family have shown me. I have been truly blessed to have had these exposures in my life.” Beautifully shared Michael.
When we save a special love for only those we are directly related to and hold it back from everyone else, we are not living the true, loving beings we are. We are also holding back on our families because love is not something we can turn off and on. It has been an awesome lesson for me too, to realise that I can expand my love to include all my equal brothers…that means everyone. There is no perfection, and not even close sometimes, but to feel the possibilities and to grow in this each day is lovely.
When we see family as only those we were born into we limit our lives so considerably. It is such a shame to witness those who only care for those that are defined as being their brother or sister or mother or cousin. It narrows our outlook when there is a broadness and richness available to all the relationships we can form, that is there for us to enjoy.
Great Blog Michael, I love that since being privy to true family that you see it is as your responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with you. This is an inspiration for all those that are supported by others to give back, knowing that it is never just for our self but to share with all.
Love in action, thank you for sharing your appreciation for the reflections of true family that you have experienced.
We can sometimes see acts of true family out and about on the streets, acts of joy and kindness when we look around and feel them. Very often in the illusion of our blood families, we can have obligation, duty, needs, and appearances first and foremost. You have had a life changing experience to have felt that foundation of true love by a whole family Michael, it is the universal way we can all feel and choose to live.
We compartmentalise people into family, friends, work colleagues, acquaintances etc. What you have shared here Michael is something that I have come to learn; family is certainly not just about blood relations. What an amazing education you have had already, and people will feel this wonderful quality of yours and be inspired by how you are with them.
This is so awesome Michael. What an amazing true education.
Absolutely agree Michael Brown, true family “is not blood bound or placenta promised” and all too often we use the excuse of family to actually behave very differently towards people, one way with people we have grown up with and another way with ‘strangers’. What your experience shows us is that there is a way to be with be truly caring, respectable and loving with everyone, to respond to people in the same consistently loving manner regardless of whether we have grown up with them or not. True family is about respecting everyone, regardless of race, gender, culture, nationality, its about knowing that inside we are all the same, wise, tender, deeply loving and inspiring one another to live all of this amazing sameness throughout every inch of our lives and with all we meet.
Michael, this is very gorgeous, ‘I was truly welcomed and embraced as an equal member of the family.’ This feels so lovely to be treated as an equal, as part of the family, I have been feeling this more and more with people that I meet, that there can be an immediate connection, a closeness and adoration without knowing people very well at all, it has shown me how we are all true family and that we do not need to be blood related, it feels great to be this open and loving with people who would otherwise be considered ‘strangers’.
A great part about this blog is how Michael Brown turns the gift he has been given back out in to the world, seeing it as a responsibility to share what love he has and not to keep it for himself or those in his immediate circle. This is the marker of a true student of the The Way of The Livingness: a responsible and loving young man who understands the bigger picture and his place within it, in the sense that no one should be left behind, left out or excluded.
True family is something we are not often familiar with. Family, as most of us know it, instead, is where we construct a sense of familiarity that is at the root of a way of moving in life that is not precisely evolving.
This is a beautiful example Michael that you are sharing with us of what true family looks like. So often family is confined to blood lines and there is a tendency in society to ‘stick to your own’ and be inward looking or insular in family units. However the Benhayons and now other families are showing a different model of family – one that is outward looking and embracing of the world.
The term ‘extended family’ is often used in some cultures to define family beyond biology and there is sometimes a false romanticism about it. I’ve observed extended family networks first hand and found many not fuelled by brotherhood and equality, and very often the very opposite was true. I have observed how in the country of birth (Sierra Leone), children were often given to more affluent families to live, and in return worked around the house, were sent to school and supported in other ways. Relationships with these children were servant-like and often exploitative: they were not treated as equals, an us and them culture existed. Children sometimes did not sleep within the home, but in separate quarters, and if they did the quality of accommodation and furnishing was of a lower standard to that of the host family. They never shared in family meals, but ate separately. When I look back this practice< I'm shocked at how bad it was ( and still is). Love and humanity was the missing ingredient.
Thank you Michael this is super inspiring to be fully and to the tiniest detail equally loving and caring with everybody.
Michael thank you for sharing your experience of True Family, this type of family – these type of relationships are certainly lacking in society. The core of this being the fact biology does not make up family but choices do. It’s clear the openness and willingness of everyone you’ve shared about confirms what is possible and open to us all, should we choose it. As others have shared, simple, open, practical and deeply loving.
Some awesome distinctions made here Michael between true family and what it is we currently accept as ‘family’. To understand it as something binding by love, and not blood, makes perfect sense in my book, and knowing the Benhayons as I do, have been constantly inspired, by their example, to let go of the very limited sense of what my view of family was.
I grew up in a family where there was a saying ‘first time guest, second time help yourself to a cup’ the first time being an orientation and from there on they were treated no differently. Since meeting the Benhayon’s and many others I can say that true family can’t be contained by blood and they have taken my understanding of this to whole new levels. I have and do experience close family with so many more people than those I am related to by blood or law.
I loved reading this Michael, you yourself are such a beautiful reflection. What you are sharing shows that true family is anyone and everyone – true family is humanity and it is our responsibility to treat everyone with the same level of love and respect.
Wow what an amazing gift to receive at such a tender age – the truth about family. Thank you for sharing this here for all to read and to understand.
When society has so many ideals and beliefs about the family unit, of protecting your own, investing in and caring more about yours than others, this blog is a taste of the future – when we will all be one and the same without separation or difference, with love as the common denominator.
So true Janet about society having so many pictures about what a “family” is. Even as a young child I remember feeling that something was terribly wrong when we would protect our “own” children at the expense of “others” children…
Though we have a responsibility to take care of the children directly ‘under our care’ it makes no sense to me when we seem to close off our hearts to others when I know we are all loved equally.
Thank you Michael for sharing your experience of true family with us. Every human being wants to be welcomed, accepted and loved as an equal regardless of who they are with. What you experienced in the Wall family home is truly exceptional but can also become the new norm.
“And so when I reflect on what true family is, in my bones I know it is not blood bound or placenta promised,” Beautifully expressed Michael and so true.
Michael this is a beautiful blog and sharing of true family lived for all to feel and experience and the photo is an amazing sharing of the light and joy sparkling within you all. A real marker and experience of the loving way we all know inside of us we can be as the oneness of brotherhood is clearly felt and missed by us all.
Being held in absolute and equal love, meeting everyone just the same, knowing that we all are the same by essence and origin is true family – a universal way of living on a very practical and ‘normal’ everyday basis.
Beautiful Alex “knowing that we all are the same by essence and origin is true family “
Beautiful Michael. “It is now my absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with me by the Benhayons and the Walls’, to allow those I meet their own growth and learning.” True and enduring education of the responsibility of a true family member.
Wisdom beyond age fits your experience. But have we just forgotten what true family is? Your words are proof Michael that true family is universal and alive and well.
Great to read Micheal. This blog also highlights how you weren’t shy to open yourself to an ever expanding family also.
Thank you for sharing.
Great point Luke, to have a true connection requires both people to be open to it.
It required a lot of work – Shedding all the pre-calculated persona traits and fulfilling the presumed expectations of me took me time. A process that I am 100% beyond joyful and appreciative I did, and was supported to do
Michael, this is beautiful and so confirming.I will have somebody visit us this week and your article reminds me to truly let this young girl in and treat her like an equal family member and not like a guest. Like you share about 3 families to see how family in truth would work, as there is no need for a biological family to be the only possible family, but that family must be seen in a much broader context and way.
There’s a huge difference between the word ‘guest’ and the feeling of ‘one of us’ or ‘one of the family’
Thank you for sharing Michael, as it is important to understand that our perception of what family is to us can be from a complete false foundation. That what you share in your blog feels so natural to me and shows me what true family is. Family is not a constellation to be owned by but instead a constellation that nurtures and supports us to evolve and in that shine the light that we are.
It is strange that we think true family would have something to do with blood-lines… The moment I allow myself to feel my Inner-Heart, I know that God has nothing to do with lines or linearity. God is all-encompassing, so the truth of everything we find in creation has to be all-encompassing.
I love this ‘God is all-encompassing, so the truth of everything we find in creation has to be all-encompassing.’
“…when I reflect on what true family is, in my bones I know it is not blood bound or placenta promised…” This statement makes me realise that raising children is the responsibility of the whole community
So very true Jo. If we all embraced this responsibility our children and young adults would be so supported to be all they could be for themselves and society as a whole.
Michael, this is so beautiful to read and so timely as well as I have been so pondering on how everyone is essentially family, blood bound or not. What we lay as a foundation of relationship at home, is what we can then bring everywhere we go, to another family or to our work, or to our other projects. This is so important to recognise how vital it is, and I love how you have shared how you felt that Serge is a man that treats everyone as equals, treats everyone with the same and equal beholding love no matter what their race, social background, understanding of life etc etc. Your blog Michael is GOLD. Thank you for sharing what you have shared.
What an awesome opportunity to feel the truth about what a true family is Michael. It isn’t bound by blood.
What unites us all, beyond our skin colour, race, religion and culture is love. Thank you for sharing.
This is a very beautiful account of true family Michael. My understanding of true family has changed significantly over the past few years to the point where I now live with 3 other adults that I am not related to and know that they are as much a part of my family as those I have blood ties with. My understanding of family has expanded to include my work colleagues, friends and anyone I see regularly. In truth I know that there is no one on this planet that is not a part of my family and this has made for a life with an abundance of love that I hadn’t dreamed possible.
This is very true for me too. I also have a very changed understanding of family over the past few years.
Wow Michael, thank you for sharing your amazing experience about true family. It really is very inspiring to read and your love, gratitude and appreciation for the Walls and Benhayon family is deeply felt through and through. We all can learn so much from reading this because our current understanding of family is not where is should be, what true family is, is much, much greater, our family includes everyone on earth. When we are open to embracing true family, it means no cultures, no boarders and no division. We are essentially all one huge family.
Yes absolutely. Our family includes everyone on earth with no divisions.
I had the strong knowing when reading your blog Michael that this is what can be normal for everyone and this level of love and respect shared on the whole planet. There sure is work to do but it is the most joyful kind of work because it is simply sharing and reflecting as you say our absolute responsibility to live what we how been inspired to live by families like the Benhayon’s and the Walls.
The concept of family being Universal is the way of the future, this beautiful article shows we can all support each other to grow and understand true family, true connectedness and responsibility for one another, and that we can take this out to all of our community – across the world!
Being able to watch a wife and an ex wife be best friends is a true inspiration. I love how these women don’t have to go the way so many women do with the jealousy, comparison and pure nastyness that has become normal these days.
This is sensational Michael and embodies the true family way of community and family is held within everyone of us, no matter if we are blood related or not. We are all kin and from this space we can all learn the depth of love from our own responsibility to bring and express all of who we are for all others in our wider family the world over.
Love what you have shared here. True family is so much more than bloodlines. I feel that since meeting Serge Benhayon and his family, my family has grown so much and I really love and cherish this.
I have been fortunate enough to be part of many families in my early adult life and learnt much about being responsible and accountable for my part in making up the whole. Being welcomed into a home and respected as a member and not a guest feels like I can let go of any guard or facade and just be me.
‘And so when I reflect on what true family is, in my bones I know it is not blood bound or placenta promised..’
Here here Michael – when more people feel this way then there will be no room to hate or treat each other badly, only space to hold one another equally. The more people we let in the more we can see and feel that in essence, we are all the same.
How lovely Michael, and how different the world would be if we each embraced every person we met with the same equal love we hold for family, knowing that in truth we are all family.
This can inspire us all to open our doors to all who come and welcome them as family, not as guests or as someone special. It is a beautiful experience to be welcomed into someone’s home this way and to have your turn taking the garbage out.
Reading “It is now my absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with me by the Benhayons and the Walls’, to allow those I meet their own growth and learning” really asks for my responsibility as a member of this One big family. Thank you Michael for your beautiful sharing.
I have been asking myself the question, am I the same with everyone I meet? Do I hold everyone in the same love whether they are a part of my family or not? No, I can’t honestly say that I do. I actually feel that I can be harsher with my own family, which shows that there are expectations there. Taking responsibility for my part in this, I feel that because I haven’t always spoken truthfully and shared openly with how I’ve been feeling, or why something isn’t ok, or if I have it’s come out in frustration or anger, I am not treating my family with the respect that I would with someone that I don’t know. It’s easy to take advantage within a family setting, to use each other in a way that we wouldn’t with another.
What a wonderful expression about ‘family’ you have shared with us Michael, and from your lived experience. I know I have in the recent past had regrets about my gathered own experience of ‘family’ and how it influenced me to a point of raising our own awesome children, for the wisdom of trust and true love had not yet been upon my radar screen. There were certain areas of interraction that I could not bend to and this was based on mis-placed views of ‘protecting our nuclear family’ from the harshness of life. Wind the clock forward 40 years or so and I see now the de-valuing of an understanding of community, trust and brotherhood that took place in some instances. How beauty-full that young people such as yourself are offered the opportunity to know they are equal in every way and have much to reflect to the rest of the world. I love the quip about family not being necessarily “blood bound or placenta promised.”
Michael you have just inspired me in this blog to see everyone who comes and stays in my house as first a friend then a family member but never a guest, including my blood related family. Very often I find it is simple to treat strangers as family, but a bit less easy the other way around. Very often I treat family members different than with non-blood related family, as I will hold back truth more. I enjoy seeing this new perspective as well as a deeper exposing of attachment with family, because indeed it does not work if blood family treats themselves as guests in my house! In true family, there are no attachments and that just feels like a breath of fresh air, very simple, natural and true.
The beautiful family picture with you as much a part of the Walls family as everyone else shows the absolute truth in what you are sharing. There is so much love amongst everyone, no one feels less or more. Very inspiring to read and feel. Thank you.
I have fallen for the image of what family is all about and had the ideal that it consisted the family I was born with. What you have share here Michael Brown is a great lesson in how people can come from all walks of life and that the core ingredient here is an unimposing love that you have felt from these two families. There are no blood lines but a willingness to welcome you into their hearts first and then their home.
When we’re held and treated as an equal by others, it gives us the space to accept ourselves and reflect that equalness back. It becomes contagious and only needs one person to start.
We are united by love not blood and the depth of your words Michael, sing this truth for all. To fall for the notion that family can only be those related by blood, is to willingly choose to not accept the truth that we are all One with no borders of blood to divide us. I love how you have signed off with the knowing that as you have received this reflection of true family, so to is your responsibility to live it with others. A truly humbling and very inspiring piece thank you.
It is the treating of everyone as an equal loving brother, and seeing every person – all of humanity, as being our ‘family’ that will change the world.
Spoken with authority Michael Brown – as someone who has clearly lived and grown up through this experience. True Love is relentless in that it is forever holding us and that means pulling us up when our behaviour is unacceptable. What great wisdom to have at your age – so mature. Thank you Michael.
Reading this touched something deep inside me… we all know deep within what true family is and it is something we all know we should have but don’t feel it in our everyday lives.
Spoken with authority Michael Brown – as someone who has clearly lived and grown up through this experience. True Love is relentless in that it is forever holding us and that means pulling us up when our behaviour is unacceptable. What great wisdom to have at your age – so mature. Thank you Michael.
You can feel from this photo MIchael, you are accepted and indeed a part of a wonderfully united family. We are all part of the one family and this lovely photo of you and the Wall’s family is but a small example of this. You are role models of what could possibly be the way we all may choose to be living in the future as you in fact are choosing to live that future now.
Wow Michael – thank you for sharing what true family is and the support we can give each other when we see everyone as equal.
I really loved reading this Michael, and seeing the photos just brought it to life even more. It is so beautiful to feel held as an equal, and to hold others in that same love and equality – a blueprint for how all of our relationships can be, whether we’re blood related or not – there really is no difference.
Michael, your experiences blow apart what family is and how family operates, to be held in love by another whether you’re related to them or not is family and even more so to have them lovingly support you and if needed point out where you are not being your true self is such a gift. What I feel from your blog very strongly is your lived experience of family and how it’s now expanded to include everyone and how all of us can live in this way. We are surrounded by family always no matter where we are.
Such a beautiful explanation of what true family is, Michael, this just blows me away. What an amazing experience you have had in your short life, incredible opportunities for you from such a young age to learn such a different but beautiful way of living. But this is the way for the future for us to regard true family. In truth we are all part of the one ginormous family. Time for us to learn to truly love one another and live together as the One that we are in our essence.
Thank you for sharing your story Michael, really nice to read.
The concept of Family being blood related with the visible ties this brings is something society embellishes as one of the greatest ideals and framework for successful life. Yet to be open to living family in all relationships, our broader community and all humanity brings a wealth of understanding, richness and opportunity to deeply know who we in-turn truly are. Thank you Michael for bringing the realness and simplicity of being with others in true relationship and how it is our own openness that allows for these amazing experiences.
Beautiful to read Michael. An awesome account of true family
I am blown away by the beauty, wisdom and deep level of appreciation you are sharing with us all here Michael – it makes my heart sing.
Love looking at the joy-full photo of you Michael, and everyone in 2016, there is such felt closeness, inclusivity and fondness of and for each family member, holding their own love and style with no favouriting…just pure equal gorgeousness in each of the smiles : )
Absolutely beautiful to read and feel your connection with what true family is Michael and the impact this has had on your life. This is something that I have been working on for some years now, breaking out of the beliefs of what signifies family. I was brought up quite sheltered with the saying ‘what happens in the family stays in the family’…and while I had a big extended family, I held back expressing how I really was because they weren’t my immediate family. This has changed massively now and I can say I have family all over the world.
Beautiful Michael – love knows no bounds, and certainly not blood ties. You have experienced something both magical and mundane. There is no reason why this cannot be shared more so that it becomes a normal.
What you’ve shared Michael shows that true family is based on love, not on blood. This makes perfect sense as we are love, before we are anything else that defines us.
Great account and experience Michael, you share the equalness that is love and hence true family.
I grew up in a nuclear family, but that didn’t have the boundaries I saw around other families, my mother was very inclusive, having people stay long term when they required it. She spoke to everyone equally and mixed in society across the board, doing facials in mental institutions, to chairing meetings. All three children went to a co educational boarding school ( due to distance) , where we gained house mothers and fathers and lots of brothers and sisters. To this day I hadn’t truly appreciated the Love my mother and father openly shared, thank you Micheal for expressing your experience and reminding me of true brotherhood, true family.
As they were the ones for you – you are now to be the ones for others – “It is now my absolute responsibility to hold others in the same quality of love, integrity and respect shown and shared with me by the Benhayons and the Walls’, to allow those I meet their own growth and learning.”. I love how this works like this. This way we are all the one.
How beautiful and gorgeous is it to read these experiences of such a young man. A true and inspiring role model to me, offering the world a huge gift: all the people that we know or don’t know, meet or don’t meet are in fact our family. What if this is the truth? What would this mean in regards to our responsibility? To the daily choices that we make? Wouldn’t it be wise, if not necesarry to making loving choices on order to be able to share our love with all our loved ones – everybody – all around us? What if… Thank you Michael Brown for shining your light in the world and sharing the joy that it brings.
How refreshing it is to have an account of what true family is and to have a young man appreciate what he has been given.
You are right in that for to society to return to a truly beautiful state of harmony with each other, the loving principles of true family are the key. It is gorgeous to see families living such love and care for each other and showing us what is possible.
Beautiful sharing Michael- so true, the Benhayon’s and others welcome people in like true family. I had never quite experienced this before. It really does offer an opportunity to grow when we can be with each other in this way and support one another as we can all learn so much when we invite more reflections and people into our lives.
I agree Michael true family is rare, but it can be worked towards and It can be lived like the Benhayon’s and the Walls. If there is commitment to live only love and address anything that is disharmonious when Jealousy, envy, manipulation or any thing comes up it is exposed for all to see and take responsibility for. When these things are out of the way there is only love.
Thank you for sharing your experience of family, what a beautiful connection you shared with them all. It is beautiful that there are true reflections of family out there like Benhayon’s and the Wall’s to inspire other families to live in a similar way.
True family can often be found outside of our blood family and actually not be in our blood family at all, because it’s a way of being and relating with one another and nothing to do with genetics. If openess, love, respect, truth and care is not present in any relationship it doesn’t matter if they ar blood related or not it’s not actually true family. Ofthen we are so desperate or in need for the family we are born into to be true family with us that we shut out possible true families, rejecting the love because we don’t want to feel it’s not present in our biological family. The more we embrace a true and loving way of living with ourselves the more open we are to fully seeing and embracing true family!
True love has no boundaries or borders and runs far deeper than our last name.
You have shared two very beautiful experiences of true family and I feel very touched that you have, for I can feel how these experiences have been formative in what your understanding of family is, which you have very generously shared, which is super important. I have to say that sadly it is rare to hear such love from a 20 year old. But how can you not share like this when this is now your foundation of living. Thank you for your inspiration.
It’s so beautiful to read about the gracious way you’ve grown from a boy to a man through the loving support of many. A transition that many young males find difficult to navigate. You are one very inspiring young man Michael and will shine your beautiful light out for many to see and be inspired by.
Gosh Michael, I feel truly blessed to read your blog and in that heart connection can feel how I and everyone else is also a member of the same one human family.
This is a beautiful blog Michael. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences of what a true family is and how in experiencing this you have evolved in your awareness, responsibility and love. What you share has a profound impact on how we restrict our ideas of what family is.
What a solid and beautiful foundation to build on as you moved into adulthood. Reading your sharing what it is like to be on the receiving end of true family has made me consider how I am with others. I know that I want to be treated in this way but is that what I am offering to all?
Universal Medicine students do not teach about true family, they live true family and your blog, Michael, is a great testimony of the fact that true family can be a reality if so chosen and is not wishful thinking or fiction.
This is a lovely exploration of true family Michael. Knowing that family, and love, is not limited to blood relations is life changing. We can treat anyone, and everyone, with the same tenderness, love and openness that we can treat blood relations with. I know that my family is ever expanding and each new member brings their own uniqueness to this family and is valued and appreciated for who they are.
Michael, thank you for your blog, I felt deeply touched to read about your experience of true family and what that means to you. Deep inside, we all know that we are all family and that it isn’t limited to those within our biological or even extended families, but goes well beyond that. To feel the truth of this would mean everyone on this planet of ours to see everyone as equal and to know that borders, cultures, religions and natationalities cannot keep us from the truth that we are all equal.
Imagine if we all lived in this way, where would disharmony, manipulation, comparison, jealousy, envy, disregard, etc etc be? Knowing that this way of family is not only possible but actually being lived is heartening and inspiring at the same time. We are all related.
Hello Michael and great to share your experiences from such a young age. It may bring forward some issues for people but I agree with what you are saying as this is my experience also. As you say, “And so when I reflect on what true family is, in my bones I know it is not blood bound or placenta promised.” We are often attached to family and different ways and depending on how we were raised usually defines how ‘big’ our family is. As you are showing Michael your ‘family’ can be a big as you choose if you are open to it. Thank you.
This is exactly what we all know and ultimately want of any family, and relationship. To feel so held, cared for and seen and respected for who we truly are and our choices we make whether they are true for us or not. What an amazing inspiration these families really are.
It was also the Benhayon family that taught me the truth meaning of the word – being a only child raised by a single mum with very little immediate family around, meeting the Benhayon’s opened my eyes to a different kind of love and family unit, and being welcomed into their family has in turn deeply enriched my own.
Beautiful Michael – excellent really! As it shows us that there is no end to love or family. That connection is family and that it is not about blood or biology. Thank you for sharing the real and tangible truth. I have been there. Serge Benhayon and his whole family is a family of all as they let in the world to see who they are and that they belong to the same love. So I think we must re-think our perception of ‘ Family ‘ simply by the example shown above, right?
I have had a similar experience as yours Michael – I have been living with other families than my own and always been met with absolute love and respect just as at my own home. Family is not just blood bound it is the way we are with each other that makes family family.
That is a great read. I am inspired Michael to ensure that I too offer that to people who come into my family, that in fact here are no ‘borders’ to what is termed family. As you have said so eloquently this is our responsibility. Major appreciation to the Walls and Bengayon family for the reflections.
To only consider family as those to whom we are related to by birth or marriage is to dishonour and completely miss the potential of what it is to live in true family.
Michael this is just gorgeous to read. Such an inspiration to treat everyone as an equal member of the family wherever we go, whoever we meet. It is so tangible in what you’ve written what family is. What’s so lovely to read is how you may have had preconceptions about what family constitutes but this never impacted on how you were treated. So inspired to never let another’s perception of what family is that it is not all encompassing as I know it to be, hinder my expression of love.
“To be treated as an absolute equal and to the same extent a vital part of the family, allowed me growth beyond growth and learning that no learning course or higher education facility could provide.” This is huge Michael. Imagine what could happen if we were to treat everyone we come into contact with on a daily basis ( our family – even though there is no blood connection) with this level of love and respect.
This is very inspiring Michael and shows how there can be another way to be as a family. So often it is about comparing, jealousy, dominance, politics, checking out – when if we bring it back to responsibility – it is all there for us. What great examples you show of the importance of accountability and equality and structure within a family and how evolving this can be.
Having just spent a holiday with friends I know what you share of family not being blood related. It is truly ground breaking when you are let into someone else’s family whole heartedly.
That’s beautiful Michael; family can be such loaded word, coming with beliefs about who and how much we should love people… But the unconditional love that you’ve shown here is what family is truly about to me too.
Thank you for writing this Michael, it is a testament of trough love, which is the basis of true family that isn’t bound by blood.
Lovely sharing and honouring of the gift you have received through the Benhayons and Walls. True family is far from the ideals we hold but something we all deeply long for
I am so appreciative of all you have written here and shared about your life, indeed what you experienced was true family, we need far more of this in our lives, people living in isolation is not ok, yet its rife in society.
You have given us a beautiful testimony of what true family is from your personal experience, and it is very obvious how it enabled you to grow from boyhood to manhood in such a flowing and gentle way with the support of others who are living it Michael. It is so important in this world where parents are very stressed, and many young people turning to self harm and other abuse, that those who have had the opportunity to meet Serge Benhayon and his family and wider family of students and experience the way they embrace every human being as family equally, share this, and live and express it in their daily lives for all to feel. This is the way to bring the harmony you mention, no preaching, just living in true livingness, present with all. Thank you for a very inspiring blog
That is such a joy-filled photo of you all, you can feel Michael as an equal member of the family…very awesome that you are living the future now and showing us what is possible. Thank you.
Accepting each person we have into our home as a member of our family is a sure way back to brotherhood.
Your whole sharing is gorgeous Michael and I couldn’t agree more ‘And so when I reflect on what true family is, in my bones I know it is not blood bound or placenta promised, as the experiences I have had with the Benhayon family and the Walls family have shown me. I have been truly blessed to have had these exposures in my life.’ I love this paragraph. It really stood out for me.
So this is what the gap year can provide! Welcomed whole heartedly into a family to be met as an equal member of the family, not because of your blood line but because you are you, and we are all essentially the same.
Gorgeous expression of what true Family and ultimately what Brotherhood is. Thank you Michael.
Indeed, Leah – true family and brotherhood go hand in hand. Nobody is left behind nor treated unequally.
I have a deep respect and decency of just what another is capable of family or not, and in truth have always had – I just gave my power away to others who were afraid of expressing their love back – so I withdrew (on a large scale to what I know my love is capable of) too. Family and how I grew up does not make sense. In blood family there is a level of knowing each other very intimately – the potential to work together and pull each other up to evolve is like no other relationships outside the home, exactly like the Benhayon family do. Its best to let that love out in full and have a relationship with it, then to withdraw being in your own creation of abuse.
I felt that you expressed what i have been looking for. My growing up family seemed ok on the surface but i felt something was wrong.
i was right, but choose to ignore the feeling, convincing myself it was pretty good.
I have had very little physical contact with the Benhayons, but still feel the love and appreciation i have been missing.
True family is all of humanity as practiced by the Benhayon’s. This is not experienced or far from the perspective of many. I suppose this is like it is because love is not experienced individually on a personal level. We are fooled by the blood family relationships where in my experience it was not love at all to what I know love is today, and just a distraction to not be aware that true love begins with you – it is not given to you as is the accepted norm these days. Thank God for the Benhayon’s love as a family reflecting this to humanity slowly rippling out to the rest of us where one day brotherhood will be the norm.
What you have experienced being with these families Michael is a testament to what is possible for humanity – breaking the moulds of family that keep us focused on individualism and separation.
Michael what you have shared here is gold and contributes clearly to breaking down the beliefs and ideals about the ‘nuclear’ family and the hold on it’s members that prevents such beautiful connections and true family love. Thank you!
Thank you Michael, for not only sharing what true family is but – upon experiencing what true family is – our responsibility to then reflect this with others.
Amazing Michael, thank you for sharing – you even look like you are member of the Walls family in the bottom picture. It shatters all images and beliefs of what we think family is or should be.
Thank-you Michael, this is a great sharing, about what a true family really means. Only calling those blood relatives as family, is not true humanity and not the way we are naturally meant to be.
gorgeous blog Michael, loved it! This is how true family should be, no roles and no pretending, just truth. Complications are made when we make barriers and things which separate people into ‘family’ and ‘guest’ etc. Love all the examples you give and look forward to more sharings.
Thank you Harry – I look forward to sharing more!
It is so interesting that we moderate and gauge how much of ourselves we share and with whom. It is such a false and limiting behavior and ideal. Family is a great way to expose this. When I think of the people that inspire me most they are people who don’t compromise them selves or allow anyone to compromise others.
It is awesome that families such as the Benhayon and Walls’ are so open and loving to all. Especially when they pull you up just as much as include and hold you within their families love. Maybe we should share ourselves around more often, in either bringing others into our families or staying with others as there is much for us all to learn from one another.
What you have described of true family is definitely gold Michael. Let the world come to the same realisation.Thank you for sharing this.
It can be confronting to be held in love, particularly when there is learning there for us and things are presented that we don’t want to hear, let alone accept as the truth. Within a family setting, there is nowhere to hide as everything is felt by the whole family, of which we are an integral part. The same can be said for humanity, we are one huge family and everything is felt by everyone, so we all have a responsibility to hold each other with love, integrity and respect, always.
It was very beautiful to read your words, Michael, to feel the depth of love and the absolute truth in what you share. You are so right ‘in the core of what true family stands for, lies the key to returning society to its joyous and harmonious state.’ – very well said.
Its one thing to say we are family, another to live and feel that. Your words are so full of warmth Michael, you remind me that there really is no-one who is not my family. The fact is we get to live with 7 billions brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers. People like the Benhayons show us all the family barriers we grow up with are not actually real. Its ironic isn’t it the thing we cling to and hold on to the most is actually keeping us from seeing the bigger truth of us all.
What an eye opening – wait, make that a heart opening -experience! Thanks for sharing it, Michael, through your writing so that those of us who have not experienced it can get a glimpse of the new world family.
Reblogged this on vivvybutler and commented:
Oh Michael what a wonderful blog that made my heart sing.
When we follow this example, it is exactly how true families can all be, open and loving to all, not holding anyone more special than another. What an amazing reflection you have had Michael and can now pass this on and reflect it to everyone you meet throughout your whole lifetime.
Awesome to share Michael how true our relationships can be and how true family is far more reaching than blood.
Beautiful Michael. Thank you for sharing your experience.
This is such a gorgeous blog, Michael, showing us all that our blood families though very important are not always the only ones who can support our children and young adults in their daily living. In fact there is so much learning to be had on all sides when families open themselves up to supporting others in this way.
Just knocking down the parameters of what we consider family to be is awesome. Humanity seclusively think love is for this person or that and shown in this way or that to a select few but not others. This exposes the great separate we have all fallen for and also contracted ourselves to live in. An amazing blog!
This is an absolute game-changer – expanding the definition of ‘True Family’ in every way, as we must until humanity collectively come to the knowing that we are ‘one’ family, without exception or distinction.
Beautifully said Deborah
In truth we are all family. This is something I have always felt and deeply known from a young age. When we meet someone on a street, bus stop, train, shop, office I have always known that past the gender, age, skin colour, religion, we are the same. We have the same love and wisdom within. It’s beautifull to read how this is lived around the world as you have shown in your blog.
Thank you Michael for opening up, allowing us in and sharing the reality of what true family is.
And to feel it just as you experienced it – it was very beautiful to read.