A dangerous thing it is, pride. We become overconfident and that's when the problems start. Because pride causes us to be careless and ungrateful, which leads us to make mistakes, costly ones that will have us crash and burn. Now this doesn't mean we shouldn't be confident, we should, but keep it leveled. Not allowing it to control us, and toss aside everything we have done to reach our success. Pride makes us weak, encouraging us to overlook the importance of life's many aspects leading us to an untimely fall.

I really love this quote. I think it speaks to an important truth that is often forgotten. Yes, we don't get to choose our families and there are plenty of places where we see people gripe about this fact. But, perhaps we should consider that it is this unique circumstance that makes family so special? We get to choose so many elements of our lives. (I know a lot of people will argue with me on this point, so my response to that is just think about it and see if my point of view has some truth to it.)

Often times, it is in those moments where "choice" is supposedly taken away, many of us find our greatest joys and learn our most important lessons. And our families are the people we often experience those moments and times with. And while family life is far from the rosy picture that is sometimes imagined, I think it has a certain kind of perfection, one that cannot be crafted, rather just is. It's raw, real, and authentic and this makes the good times, amazing, and the not so good times, seemingly unbearable.

I personally prefer this to the idealized version of family, where everyone is happy all the time, because frankly that is unrealistic and unhealthy. The trials and struggles are what make families strong and relationships resilient. It is messy and difficult. Sometimes, you wish you didn't have to deal with the situations that you are put in, but life is such that we'll always have those types of things come up. The question left is "how do we choose to deal with them?"

Anyways, my point is, family is special, and a kind of special that cannot be replicated or recreated elsewhere.
So, let's try to appreciate it and all that comes with it, because at the end of the day, those people were put into your life for a reason.