a short story made long......

I want to tell you a story about a litle girl who lost her mother when she was 7 years old.
The little girls' father was devastated and lost....he was quite unable to care for his young children, so....
....he took another wife, very, very soon after his first wife died.
The little girl missed her mommy so badly....but, she was happy when daddy brought her a new mommy.....for a while.
The little girls' big brothers and sister were not too happy with their father for trying to replace their beloved mother so soon after her death and so began a conflict so hard and long that it ripped this precious family to shreds.
Years went by.....
the little girl grew.....
she grew into a teenager.
The teenager had become aware of the conflict and had begun to try to make her way around it, but everywhere she went she ran into walls: walls of resentment, walls of anger, walls of judgment, walls that threatened to crush her....and so, she avoided the walls as best she could and she embraced the conflict, for you see, it was what the family feasted on daily, it was what gave the family life.
Years went by....
the little girl was not little anymore and she had become an expert at not needing anyone or anything, for, you see, she had discovered that vulnerability was the enemy and made you weak, and she was strong, she was a survivor....
She survived her beloved mothers' death and she had survived the family conflict.
She was strong.....but everything has a price....and the price the little girl had paid to survive was very high.
She had discovered the true opposite of love: apathy...and she was an expert.
So, she made friends.....
The friends became her family and all the things that go into a familial relationship went into her friends...and they were precious to her, more precious than anything.
One day....the little girls daddy died.
She had to make a choice:
what do I do with this pathetic family that my dead parents have left behind?????
The little girl knew that the conflict was still there, rather like the big blue elephant in the middle of the room that no one would look at, but the family had long since tired of the feasting.
She decided to embrace them.
She tried very hard to build a relationship with them.
How do you build on a foundation of apathy????
It was impossible.
Years went by......
..... the family went away....along with the conflict, the pain, the frustration, the anger......all gone......
For, you see, there was no mother to spread her wings and gently draw her babes into her breast where they would be safe from harm.....
The little girl missed her mommy.....and wondered why her family had been through so much, yet, had learned so little.
We must make the most of the time we have here on earth, for our life is like a vapor.......