Cousins are friends who already know how crazy your family is.
– Source Unknown
Sometimes, Richard Bach’s words prove true, “Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who want you in theirs; the ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile and who love you no matter what.” [Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah] Bach also wrote, “The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.”As described in a Rick Riordan novel, “Families are messy. Immortal families are eternally messy. Sometimes the best we can do is to remind each other that we’re related for better or for worse―and try to keep the maiming and killing to a minimum.”
For mere mortals, Thought Catalog acknowledges, “You may have purposely severed certain connections because they became too toxic for you, because you finally realized the truth — that blood doesn’t determine whether or not someone deserves a place inside of your universe.
Despite what you grew up believing, your family members aren’t always the people who were inside of the hospital room on the day of your birth. Your family members aren’t always the people that your genetics bind you to biologically. Read more
If the family you’re born into isn’t the one you need,” Shondaland suggests,
- Get rid of guilt about disengaging
- Value the people you have
- Read more
- “Caller ID was invented for family screening.”
- “Siblings are your first frenemies.”
- “Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.” – George Burns
- “The great advantage of living in a large family is that early lesson of life’s essential unfairness.” – Nancy Mitford
- “‘Well, that escalated quickly’ is our family motto.”
- “The capacity for friendship is God’s way of apologizing for our families.”–Jay McInerney