Family

Family, to me, is most easily described by what it is not.

It is not having some genes in common (after all, we share aprox. 99,9% of our genes with any other random human being, and 98% with chimps).
It is not a matter of who gives birth to whom (where would fathers be in that?)
It is not a mother, a father and two point four children (That would be sort of bloody, and who would pick which 0.4th part of the third child would be kept?).
It is not about living in the same house, or being married or a sharing a family tree. It is not about always being nice to one another or about forever or even about having only one.

So what, then, is family?

Family, to me, is a group of people who cares deeply for one another, each in their own separate ways, each in their own unique capacity. Family is complicated and messy and uneven and always in flux. Family, in the end, is knowing that no matter what you do, no matter what awful words come out of your mouth, no matter how much distance separates you, there will always be someone who still cares.