Family mediator Antoinette Hourani Abboud led couples in reflecting on a healthy relationship with the extended family, the difference between love and interference, and healthy boundaries.
With the blessing of His Excellency Bishop Elie Bechara Haddad, Archbishop of the diocese, Metanoia Listening Center and the Family Committee of the Greek Melkite Catholic Diocese of Sidon and Deir El-Qamar organized a couples gathering at the center under the title "Between the small family and the deep roots" on Saturday 8 November, from 5 to 8 pm. The gathering was led by Mrs. Antoinette Hourani Abboud, a specialist in family mediation. It opened with an introduction to the theme, offering a balanced view of the importance of the extended family as emotional and social support between the small family and the larger family, and how to keep the relationship healthy without love unintentionally turning into control.
The couples then divided into four groups. Each person answered a written questionnaire, followed by a time for each couple to talk honestly and discuss their answers calmly and openly. The couples then shared within each group, discussed guided questions inspired by the theme and exchanged experiences for an hour and a quarter.
After the sharing circles, each group presented its ideas and conclusions to everyone. Mrs. Abboud then developed the theme in detail, speaking about the healthy relationship between the small family and the extended family, the difference between love and interference, and healthy boundaries in a relationship – how to set them and why they matter for preserving love, because "love without boundaries hurts, and boundaries without love harden the heart." She stressed that "the extended family gives us roots, and the small family gives us wings," so let us live between roots and wings with love, respect and healthy boundaries.
To close, each person shared the fruit they had received from the gathering and what had touched them most.
Everyone then gathered around simple refreshments, expressing their joy at the gathering and at a theme that shed light on many situations they face in their lives and gave them new ideas for handling them with more maturity and responsibility.
