This month our province celebrates Family Day on the third Monday. It feels like a much-needed break during winter. It is a chance to reflect and give thanks for our families — those who love and support us. We might be celebrating our birth families or our families of choice, our friends.

I wonder, though, about the concept of Family Day. What about those in our community who don’t have a family, or for whom family is not a pleasant experience? What about those in our community who are experiencing a sense of disconnectedness? Statistics Canada in 2021 reported that “more than one in ten people in Canada are always or often lonely.”

Family Day isn’t called that in every province. Both Manitoba and Nova Scotia encourage people to reflect upon the history of their communities, calling it Louis Riel Day in Manitoba and Heritage Day in Nova Scotia. Prince Edward Island calls it Islander Day, which seems like an encouragement for people to think about their involvement in their island community.  I like this idea.

What if we expanded our concept of family to include not just those in our immediate circle or even distant relatives, but saw our entire Kamloops community as a family? Where every member of that community is cherished and treasured.

Like any family, our community has its ups and downs. There are the relations we don’t understand but still care for. In a healthy family, we are tolerant of those who do things differently, and we still value them. In a good family, we get the feeling that we are all pulling together in the same direction for the common good of all.

I think of the one in ten of our community family who will be lonely this Family Day. What can we do to make people feel a part of our community, which is so rich and wonderful and has much to offer every one of us?

The Irish poet Yeats said, “There are no strangers, only friends you haven’t met yet.” There are many new people in our community, trying to make a home in Kamloops. There are international students and workers, and those from other parts of Canada, away from their home families, who are seeking a sense of belonging and contact with those of us who have been here a while.

This week, one woman, a longtime resident of Kamloops, told me that in her apartment there is a young man, 25 years old, from Alberta who is working on the pipeline. She has gotten to know him, and every other Friday she cooks dinner for him. A friendship has blossomed with someone she thought she had nothing in common with, and yet every other week, they have plenty to talk about. A little bit of family for each of them.

Welcome doesn’t have to be a grand gesture. It could be something as simple as smiling and chatting with the barista who is making your latte. There are many forces, especially today, which seek to divide and polarize people in our society. We wonder what we can do in these times. Perhaps it is as simple as seeing that stranger as a friend, a part of the Kamloops family.

Happy Family Day!

Dr. Michael Caveney is lead minister at Kamloops United Church