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I got a chance to hang out with my sister and my soon-to-be brother-in-law today. It’s not something I had planned for the day, or something I have made plans to do for a long while really. But it was just one of those moments where my partner and I were in the area and happened to have something to pick up from their house. We ended up staying for a while and caught up on everything. It was really nice.

My sister and I didn’t always get along. Growing up as kids we used to fight all the time. It was only later in life when we ended up living in a share house together that I think we were forced to work through our tensions as adults. Ever since then, our friendship has remained concrete.

I think there’s something also to be said about how a lot of people find relationships with their family members grow stronger once they’ve had a good few years not living together. That kind of “love from afar” is a real thing and makes sense when you consider that love in most relationships needs healthy boundaries to remain healthy.

It is also interesting to see my sister starting to host family events for Christmas and Easter and other traditions that have always been hosted by the previous generation. “This is how it happens,” I think to myself. “The mantle gets passed down to the next generation simply, easily, almost undetectably.” Sooner that I realize, my kids will be playing games with their cousins here while us old boring adults sit in the dining room eating and talking too much.

I know that not everyone has had as much luck with their family, or of what little family they have. Even if they are not your bloodlines, for whoever you choose or accept your family to be, I hope that those relationships grow healthier and stronger as you get older. I am very lucky to say that is what has happened with mine.