One of those things you do not have the power to choose.

You simply chance upon a few people, grow up around them, coincidentally forge similar mindsets and ideals, and learn to call them your family.

Or, maybe not.
 

Maybe you don't just 'chance' upon them. Maybe they were handed down to you for a specific reason. Just maybe there is quite a good explanation for why you chose to take birth in the particular house that you were born in.

Amidst those people you first opened your naive eyes to.

Down those rusty halls that you crawled and troddled around which you would begin to rightfully claim as your home.

That sneary sibling who loves teasing you and whom you'd learn to love to hate, have a lot of fights with, and alongside whom, you would grow. That same one who would proudly or whiningly boast of her abrupt new tag, 'the elder one' amongst friends, duly because of you.

That senile, wise, worn down couple showering upon you all their love, amused with your silly old antiques; never letting a moment to spoil you, pass them by. Yes that same couple who you'd suddenly start calling grandparents, something entirely new and endearing for them.

Was all this really sudden, unplanned, not chosen and abrupt?

Were you actually powerless in picking out your clan mates?

Or is this yet another abstruse, ambiguous and enigmatic query that stays hidden beneath the layers of stark facts stored in your brain.

Were you destined to make your entry into this world through a particular womb, which was made ready to especially nurture, shelter, shield and protect you when you do arrive, whose eyes were taught to fathom out what you needed even when you could not spell it out to her.

Remember that first time you clutched onto your daddy's big languid hands with your tiny tender ones… was it really the very first time, or was it a routine gesture; something you did to reassure yourself that you've landed in the right place, that those hands were still right there to support you, caress you, even after the elapse of such a long time.

Oh yeah, that infuriating sibling you had to put up with, all those years. The one you shared a lot more than just a room, maybe even another lifetime way before, was she given to you for a specific reason? Maybe you would help ass to her responsibilities, even as she's unaware of that big word's meaning. And she will in turn help you evolve and grow up in a way, no one else ever can or ever will.

The innumerable days you spent with her- bickering, fighting, wrangling and laughing. Those chilly nights you slept next to each other, snuggled in, each comforting and cradling the other.

All those birthday parties, anniversaries, vacation trips and shopping sprees and every other occasion where your lot stuck out as a "family" and endured it all together, that personal package of your halcyon days was maybe conspicuously gifted to you.

Yet another infant being born on that day in that hospital ward that day. Maybe that was what you were.

Or maybe your lingering, craving spirit, took a human form that fateful day, to play its due part, assume its indisputable role in the long running, untold, unshared story, that only you and your 'coincidental family' mates have been a part of, have been living since eons of lifetimes before.

And maybe every argument you have, every hug you share, every laugh resonating within those familiar walls, every damn emotion that you dispense amongst yourselves, somehow works in weaving and strengthening these enchanting family ties.