It doesn’t demand your loyalty. It earns it. Here is the hard truth no one wants to say out loud: Not all blood is healthy for you.
Some family members are toxic. Some are abusive. Some are so locked into their own pain that they cannot see the damage they leave in their wake. And loving them from a distance—or cutting ties entirely—is not a failure. It is survival.
That is family too. Maybe even more so. Blood and water. One you’re born into. One you build.
That is the water. Clear, necessary, life-giving.
The people who call just to check in. The ones who apologize when they mess up. The ones who see you—really see you—and stay anyway.