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Last weekend a very dear friend of mine and I spent time on the phone trying to answer the question, \u201cWhat is family?\u201d Chances are you\u2019ve tried to answer the same question at some point in your life. Often, our answer defines our happiness and the course of our days.<\/p>\n
Our Back Stories<\/strong><\/p>\n We were provoked into the conversation by her recent experience providing round-the-clock care for her terminally-ill sister and brother-in-law. As you can imagine, emotions ran high, and the dysfunctional elements in the various relationships became more apparent \u2013 and damaging. She came back home, emotionally battered and physically exhausted.<\/p>\n I was the only child of an alcoholic mother and a philandering father. In truth, the story of my family-of-origin is nothing, if not a tale of dysfunction. Ultimately, my parents stopped speaking to me. Mom died in 1988, Dad in 2014. The last time I saw him, in 1992, we stood in the driveway of his home and he told me I\u2019d never see him again; and he meant it. Today, they are both little more than ghosts from my past. While they may be my genetic origin, these two people were by no means, \u2018family.’<\/p>\n Both she and I decided the topic was large enough \u2013 and important enough \u2013 to investigate further. To me, that meant seeing what \u201cgreat minds\u201d have said about the true meaning of family \u2013 a task which led me to look for meaningful quotes about family that discuss themes ranging from love, strength and support to drama and betrayal. Hopefully, the quotes you find here can serve as \u201cfood for thought\u201d in your quest for a very personal answer to the question \u201cwhat is family?\u201d<\/p>\n For some of us, the experience we’ve had with our families has been traumatic, disappointing and filled with problems. Unfortunately, family relationships gone bad, is as a part of life that some of us have to overcome. Here are a few quotes that help to put to words to some of those feelings.<\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps nothing so accurately characterizes dysfunctional families as denial.\u201d ~John Bradshaw, Bradshaw on the Family: A New Way of Creating<\/p>\n \u201cA family can be the bane of one’s existence. A family can also be most of the meaning of one’s existence. I don’t know whether my family is bane or meaning, but they have surely gone away and left a large hole in my heart.\u201d ~Keri Hulme, The Bone People<\/p>\n \u201cAs I was growing up, no one in my family got their needs met through respectful negotiation and compromise. The only victories I had ever seen my mom achieve were small, and she had accomplished them through manipulation, which was one of the few techniques she had for surviving her relationship with my father.”\u00a0~Olga Trujillo, The Sum of My Parts: A Survivor’s Story of Dissociative Identity Disorder<\/p>\n \u201cSadly, no one in our family ever said, \u2018I love you.\u2019 Do you realize that? The truth is, I think we were all frightened of saying it, since the obvious reply would’ve been. “Well, if this is love, what is hate like?\u201d ~Louie Anderson, Dear Dad: Letters from an Adult Child<\/p>\n \u201cThe happy family is a myth for many.\u201d ~Carolyn Spring<\/p>\n \u201cAll parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair.\u201d ~Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.\u201d ~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring<\/p>\n It seems as though we all intuitively understand the importance of family, especially when it includes love and support. For some it\u2019s everything. Together, a healthy and happy family can become a source of strength, providing a stable environment for each member to become everything they desire to be. Here are a few quotes and sayings that beautifully capture these sentiments.<\/p>\n “To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there.” ~ Barbara Bush<\/p>\n “Families are the compass that guides us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter.” ~ Brad Henry<\/p>\n “A happy family is but an earlier heaven.” ~ George Bernard Shaw<\/p>\n The family is one of nature’s masterpieces.” – George Santana<\/p>\n “Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.” ~ David Ogden Stiers<\/p>\n “Family isn’t an important thing. It’s everything.” ~ Michael J. Fox<\/p>\n Friends, even though they aren\u2019t related to us by blood, can become closer to us over time than our biological family. In fact, the friends we surround ourselves with can oftentimes start to become like our true family. Here are a few quotes that summarize this sentiment masterfully.<\/p>\n \u201cYou must remember, family is often born of blood, but it doesn\u2019t depend on blood. Nor is it exclusive of friendship. Family members can be your best friends, you know. And best friends, whether or not they are related to you, can be your family.\u201d ~Trenton Lee Stewart, The Mysterious Benedict Society<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no such thing as a ‘broken family.’ Family is family, and is not determined by marriage certificates, divorce papers, and adoption documents. Families are made in the heart. The only time family becomes null is when those ties in the heart are cut. If you cut those ties, those people are not your family. If you make those ties, those people are your family. ~C. JoyBell C.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve now got the true meaning of family on your mind, you may also enjoy reading the August family-oriented post, \u201cNo Funeral, No Flowers: What I Learned Planning a Memorial Service<\/a>.\u201d And, if you\u2019d like some insight into how I redefined family back in 2012 when my ex-husband was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer, and how the decision affected me, in \u201cAnticipatory Grief: One Woman\u2019s Story<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s Up Next<\/strong><\/p>\n Often people tell us \u201cmy pets are my family.\u201d Certainly, I\u2019ve felt that way many times in my life and feel, like Anatole France, \u201cUntil one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.\u201d If you feel the same way, you\u2019ll appreciate my next post which is a light-hearted look at celebrity pets. It\u2019s the first of 11 focusing on pet love, and pet loss.<\/p>\n Sources:<\/strong> Last weekend a very dear friend of mine and I spent time on the phone trying to answer the question, \u201cWhat is family?\u201d Chances are you\u2019ve tried to answer the same question at some point in your life. Often, our answer defines our happiness and the course of our days. Our Back Stories We were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001002,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[1940,1941,1939],"class_list":{"0":"post-10515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-confessions-of-a-small-business-owner","7":"tag-quotes-about-family","8":"tag-true-meaning-of-family","9":"tag-what-is-family","10":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urngarden.com\/cremationblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urngarden.com\/cremationblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urngarden.com\/cremationblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urngarden.com\/cremationblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urngarden.com\/cremationblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.urngarden.com\/cremationblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10515\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urngarden.com\/cremationblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urngarden.com\/cremationblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urngarden.com\/cremationblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Meaningful Quotes about Family<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Quotes About Family Drama, Dysfunction, and Betrayal<\/h2>\n
![\"Rockwell](\"https:\/\/www.urngarden.com\/cremationblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/148311_1609417969291_7919660_n.jpg\")
Inspirational Quotes About the Importance of Family<\/h2>\n
Friends Are Like Family Quotes<\/h2>\n
\nGoodreads: Quotes about Families
\nCountry Living
\nGoodreads: Quotes about Dysfunctional Families
\nGoodreads: Quotes about Pets<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"