Household Unity

In her Conference talk, "With One Accord," Sister Reyna I. Aburto, Second Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, spoke of the need for unity. This need has arisen in my immediate family. In my household, we help each other. We rely on each other. We get on each others nerves sometimes, but we try not to let that become apparent because we need each other. We work together in unity because if we didn't, we would all be in serious trouble.

This may not be the healthiest form of, or motivation for, unity. Ideally, we would each be able to stand on our own two feet, and we would help each other because we want to, not because we need each other. But it's not the least healthy form of unity either. I Googled the term "codependency" because I thought that it might be a good term for our relationship, but it isn't. What we have is mutual dependence, and when I Googled that, another term that popped up was "symbiosis." Like other organisms, we depend on one another for our physical and/or spiritual/emotional survival.

Of course, this mutual dependency won't last forever. We will all eventually reach a stage of life where all of our physical needs are met, and by then, we might not rely on each other as much emotionally or spiritually either. We will all eventually become physically, spiritually, and emotionally self-reliant.

In the meantime, I'm glad that we all have each other. I'm glad that we can all lean on each other and support each other. I hope it lasts as long as we need it to. I will try to outgrow my dependency on others, but in a way, I'm reluctant to let it go. The relationship I have with my family right now is beautiful. I hope that its beauty doesn't get diminished when we overcome our mutual dependence and our unity becomes less than necessary.