Most people say family is forever and everyone else is just a choice
But truth is we choose our family with every passing moment
We choose our spouse, choose to have children
We choose to stay; to care; to coexist
While this isn't always the case for every one in every place
We often have the option to choose our family
Sometimes families tear each other apart with hate
Instead of leaving we choose to say "We are family" and stay

We don't choose love

We don't get to decide who takes our heart by force and in a flurry
We can choose who we will allow keep it safe and hold onto it
But we don't get to decide who we fall in love with

We call it a fall because it isn't a walk, a run or a jog
It's sudden, unexpected and unanticipated

We don't walk around this world knowing the love of our life
We bump into them, we are introduced, we trip and fall
We stumble into love and we stumble out

We don't look around a room and say-
"That one, that's the one i'm in love with"
That's not love, that's lust and attraction

We fall into, for and because of someone else
We get hurt
We pick ourselves back up
We laugh, we cry
We don't get a say in if they leave or if they stay
We lose, we grieve
We blame and we accuse
But we don't get to choose
Because love is not a choice

Love is a feeling
A calling
An urge
An undeniable force of gravity; A magnetic field
We are pulled towards and pulled apart
We are pulled so hard together we knock each other over
Just to get to our one true center

Love doesn't have a name
It's not a person
It's a connection
My love is the force that pulls us together
My love is the hurt that knocks me over
Whether I wish it was or wasn't
Love is not a choice

We can't lie to ourselves like we lie to others
A heart that beats is simply such
You can't tell it to stop or beat for someone else

Family we choose
Love we find