“Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.” ― George Burns
I’m sure many of you can relate to that quote. Whether you fall into the camp of ‘blood is thicker than water’ or prefer to keep your family at arm’s length or farther, especially on holidays, I think we can all agree that we have an opinion on what family is, what it should be, and how our own measures up.
My family didn’t look like everyone else’s growing up. I was a skinny little brown girl with untamed curly locks, growing up in Southern California as an only child of a single Caucasian mom that chose not to raise me around my “it’s complicated” Black father. Today, single parents abound, even interracial families are more common, and it’s no longer just moms running the show. It’s becoming more and more normal for a dad to pull his primary caregiver weight.
What I think is more important than whether you had the best parents, or endured life with the worst siblings imaginable, and what I know you’ll enjoy about the articles this month, is that family is what you make of it. You might value the amazing parents, grandparents or adoptive parents that showered you with love and lessons into adulthood. Or, if you didn’t have that experience, you likely found other role models along the way. And by now you’ve discovered that family is more than just blood, it’s the bonds we create that support us in our lives and the people we love to show up for, because they show up for us.
I leave you with another couple of quotes to get you started with our family theme.
“When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching -- they are your family. ” ― Jim Butcher, The Dresden Files series
“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.”
― Rick Riordan, The Sea of Monsters
Editors Note
Michele
FLM
Fete Lifestyle Magazine