Every year the family photo changes. Someday someone won’t be in it. Stand closer this year.

A yearly photograph is a quiet record of a group that is always slowly changing. People join, people move away, and eventually somebody is not in the frame. None of that needs dwelling on, but it does explain why an old picture can land so hard later, since it caught an arrangement that existed only once.

Get in the photo this year instead of taking it. Stand next to whoever you would want to be standing next to, and let the picture be slightly worse for everyone being closer together. Nobody ever regrets the composition.