What huddles closer than a family deserted? What binds more closely than a common rejection?
Maybe not at first.
At first it was the ricocheting of atoms suddenly loosed of their ties; hot and dangerous we bounced off each other, turning on each other our hurt, our anger, lashing out, drawing emotional blood to dull the coarse tears that burned inwardly.
But in our adulthood we have found that our blood is common, our hurt is common, our laughter is common, and our anger is common. We are family. We are bonded. We are for each other what noone else is for us. We share far more than we might have ever believed, and our differences simply add colour to our views of the world.
And once a family rebonds after a trauma that has changed them so fundamentally… how can they open their hearts to embrace the very thing that tore away their childhood moorings in the first place?
Maybe some can. But I cannot.