What is family?

We attended a funeral recently & it brought this question to mind.

Family by definition is "a basic social unit consisting of parents & their children".

No, I'm not a very traditional person anyway & maybe I'm just horrible but

This isn't what I consider family.

Family is so much more than bloodlines.

Family is a bond between people.

An unbreakable love that's all consuming.

There are people in my life that are family that don't share my blood.

There are people that share my blood that I have no relation to.

This isn't to say that I don't love my family.

I very much so do.

I have been very blessed with a wonderful immediate family.

but here's where my mind wanders...

I hear people all of the time say, "Aw. That is just so horrible", in response to someone saying they don't have a relationship with a family member.

Why is that so sad?

I don't have relationships or much of ones with a handful in my family.

It doesn't make me sad. Not one bit actually.

I love them, sure.

But this brings up the old question of "can you love someone & not like them?"

Sure you can.

Why is there so much pressure to be best friends with everyone in your family?

What are you supposed to do when the only thing you have in common is your bloodline?

Why are people so touchy with the word family?

Why does that word hold so much power?

I have personally been affected by people that hold bloodlines above anything else.

& also been affected by people that had no physical relation to me

but took me in as their own & made me apart of who they were.

I would just like to say, I would take the latter scenario any day.

From my experiences, the families with a "non-traditional" view, we'll call it,

had much happier & healthier relationships with each other.

Ryan & I have already discussed that when we die,

there are certain people in our lives that better be right up front with our immediate family.

The people that we've shared our life with demand just as much, if not more for some, respect than our blood.

Am I the only person that sees things this way?

this post brought to you from all of the people that loved your loved-one just like family but weren't represented or thought of in their passing. this post brought to you from someone that knows what that feels like to not be allowed to be included as family when they should have been.