I haven’t been too well but today I’m thinking slightly more coherently which means I can write something for this prompt.

I don’t have a ‘number one’; I have a group of people who I put before all others. They are my family. I don’t necessarily mean the people I’m related to by blood and marriage though.

Family, for me, is a flexible concept. It covers the people I’m related to by birth and those friends who have managed to worm their way into my heart. If anyone in the family hurt me or mine I’ll throw them out; it’s not easy though and I mourn the loss like I do a death. Over the years I’ve had to part ways with relations who’ve done something unforgivable and friends who have drifted away. It’s not as though they were dead but when I see them there isn’t that spark of love that lights my soul when I see family.

I can go for years without seeing some of my family, or have never met them in person – only through letters and pictures – but that doesn’t change anything. They make me lift up, I feel safe and at home with those people when I’m near them.

There are problems, trying to balance the demands of all of then is difficult. I don’t like to disappoint any of them. This time of year is difficult. Who do I visit when? If my sister wants me to have Christmas day with her, my friend does and my mum, who do I choose? The answer is, I take it in turns to visit everyone. New year is the same. I take in to account their other obligations and balance out what I want to do with what they need to do.

Sometimes I’m pulled apart by all of it. But I love them and therefore I’ll do everything I can to make then happy.

I may not have a ‘number one’ but this family is better.

I’d drive a single person mad, this way the insanity is spread around.