"You can know someone for years but still feel like a stranger & you can know someone for a day but feel like you've known them forever."

We all have family. Crazy or normal. Here's what most don't always realize.

Family is not blood. Coming from the same crazy tree only makes you a relative. Relatives step on toes, cross the line, are not supportive, and you avoid them at every cost. They continuously hurt your feelings and they honestly think it's okay. It doesn't matter how immediate they are. If someones repetitively treats you like crap, you cut ties. Take those damn scissors out and say goodbye. If you fear what they could do as a result of your action, it's more justification that they should be gone.

Family is more than blood. It's those people who stand beside you through thick and thin. Through the good and the bad. The ones you can cry to about the things people do wrong to you. They are the ones that give you the strength to realize you just don't need it. If you have kids, they remind you that your kids don't need toxic people who only come around when it's convenient for them. The people that only talk to you when it suits their needs. Family asks about your day and what you have going on in your life.

That group of people who sometimes hurt you and make you cry. Those tears are happy ones and the pain is from your stomach hurting because you are laughing so hard. That special circle who you can sit around with and not speak. The silence isn't an awkward though. They're the ones you can act a complete fool with and dance around to any and every song.

Your family is their family. Your kids are their kids and their kids are your kids. You know they are safe when they are around. You would do anything to see them and their family happy, because that's how it's supposed to be. Those people who are willing to jump into battle for you, but still put you in your place after if you are the one that messed up.

It's a circle. An unspoken truce to respect each other. To defend them as they defend you, to never judge and to always speak that harsh truth to because you know it's out of love.

Don't get me wrong. There are relatives that are family. Sometimes people have a good relationship with each and every relative. Other's don't.

Treasure your family. The family you choose and the family that is given to you.