If we choose it, and you choose it, that is all there is to it. Family may very readily be those who you choose to be your family, and in such a circumstance, there is no other criterion for it.
Is it? If a brother and sister turn out to not be related at all, do they suddenly become strangers to each other? If a couple raises a child that is not theirs by birth, are they not parents?
A fair question. In this time and place, I think the answer is simply that I am at peace with what has happened, and what will happen. Every moment I live is one I did not expect to have, and all the happiness and delight I feel is more than I ever anticipated. Thus, even though I know it will end someday, I need not fear that time, for it ending only means I had it to begin with.
Hmm. I think if I were living as if it were going to end, I'd not bother doing any of the things I do -- 'twould be pointless, after all. Instead, I accept the end will come, without hesitating to do anything I wish for fear of that end. That is how I see it, in any case.
I think it matters not that it is all going to end at some point. We should live our lives just as we wish, without hesitation or fear, whether we have one day, one thousand, or one trillion.
Ah. Forgive me. I was hoping that would answer your question indirectly, because in truth I am not entirely certain what it is you were asking that I am not thinking.
[Venat and Izutsumi have... let us say, great differences in their methods and styles of communication. Every once in a while, that can't help but cause a snag, right?]
[For a while, she might have had that problem, in no small part because she was profoundly exhausted, and denied the opportunity to at last rest. But that has subsided with time, and though some amount of that weariness remains, the joys living has brought have been more than worth it.]
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