Bye-O Family

We are born blank slates, our caretakers holding the chalk that writes our stories. We trust they will be gentle with the it; that they will draw carefully a picture of happiness. Of family. Of support. Of love. What happens when that chalk - that trust - is broken? Your mother says she loves you unconditionally, but you don’t feel it when she looks at you disgusted and says “You are just like your father!” You say “I love you” to a cousin you barely know, but is that how you really feel? As we grow, we observe the people around us. We learn about their failures and their successes, the more complex pieces of the puzzle. The love we feel (or not) for our families is as complex as the human experience; it is not as simple the question poses. Initially you may love them because you are taught to do so, but you don’t always because emotions, like humans, are ever-changing. I think the real answer is we are born loving certain parts of a whole we can't fully see and when the full picture comes into view, it sways our feelings one or another.