Create Your Own

I happen to have a very close and loving family and I know how lucky I am.  We are a social race of people, something like pack animals to tell the truth.  We flourish when part of a group and wither as loners.  But there is never a need to be a loner because we can create our own family or pack with people who just aren't our blood relatives.  We can love them just the same and gain all the benefits of "family".

You need to choose carefully the pack you run with, though.  Some are feral.  To live a happy and useful life, fill your pack with kind and gentle people because they're the ones who will raise you up to your best potential.  Just think what happens to people who choose to run with a criminal pack...what chance is there for them to become anything but criminals, too.

I remember trying to instill in my girls the understanding that you are known by the company you keep.  That is not to mean you only associate with the elite because they're not necessarily good people.  The right people to surround yourself with are those who want only the best for you.  

I have family I've walked away from because they were harmful in some way.  When I say "walk away" I mean I don't invest myself in their lives any more but I can still be polite to them when we happen to be together.  That's all part of being civilized.  I used to have a little clipping on the fridge door that said, "no-one can hurt you unless you let them", and I live by that.  If someone hurts me one too many times, I can't allow them to continue to be close and I think that's a logical and sensible solution.

But I truly am blessed with good people in my life.  My children top the list and I can't believe sometimes how lucky I am that they still love me after all the mistakes I made as a mother.  I've always said that Dennis and I must have done something right all those years when we were raising our daughters because they are such special, wonderful women now.

So, gather together a good pack of people, whether they're blood relatives or not, because this is what we all need in order to live a happy life.