family

Family should be the place where
you don’t have to perform to be loved.

Where you can fall apart
and still be held, not corrected.
Where silence doesn’t mean absence,
and presence doesn’t mean control.

Where “I love you”
isn’t just something said
it’s felt. It’s shown.
It’s stayed with
even when the conversation gets hard.

Family should be where
your weirdness is welcome
your intensity isn’t feared
where you aren’t inconvenient.

It should be the place where
your growth has room to stretch out
without being rushed away.
Where you’re allowed to not be okay
and someone still shows up anyway.

Family should be chosen over and over.
Not out of obligation.
But out of devotion.

And when blood fails
and it does
family should be found
in the people who sit with you
in your darkest hour
not because they have to
but because they can’t imagine not.