Families Come in All Shapes and Sizes: What's Yours?

Some Sundays, I love to read the "Weddings and Celebrations" pages of the New York Times. It's like watching a romantic comedy -- especially the longer features. I love the young-and-hopefuls, the gay couples, the interracial matches and the old farts.

This week though, I wondered, what about the rest of us? What about the never-married? The co-habitating? The newly widowed? The chosen-family-feminist? The crazy old coot with cats? The they-claim-they're-happy triangles? The "I want to be alone!" characters? The much-mingled-step-families? Who's celebrating us? Don't we deserve to have our smiling, happy faces in the paper? Hmmm?

And what does this abiding feature say about our obsession with matched pairs? We really do seem to prefer people that way -- for instance, how many of our political leaders are single? Did you notice that the media pounced on Australia's new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, when it was discovered that -- horrors! -- she doesn't have children? And why is our beloved New York Times still describing children born out of wedlock as "illegitimate"? (I had to run to the calendar when I spotted that one -- thought maybe the big earthquake bent the space-time continuum and we were back in the '50s. Some 40 percent of children are born outside of traditional marriages, by the way.)

So, HuffPost community, now's your chance. Share your "here's me and my family" story with us. Send photos, too! And show the world that there are all kinds of lives to lead and all kinds of celebrating that needs doing.

Julia Moulden is an author, speaker and columnist. Her new book, on boomers and meaningful work, will be published in 2011.