Having one aunt or uncle who gets you when your parents don’t is a quiet kind of luck. Tell them.

GRATITUDE

WHAT THIS MEANS

An adult who is not responsible for you can hear things your parents cannot. They are not paying for anything, not accountable for how you turn out, and not frightened in the way a parent is, which leaves room to just listen. That makes one well-placed aunt or uncle unusually valuable at your age. Plenty of people never get one.

Tell them what they are to you, in words, because they almost certainly do not know. Then keep the relationship going yourself rather than leaving it to family occasions.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Which relative understands you more easily than your parents do?

MORE IN GRATITUDE & PRESENCE

Free, with nothing to buy inside it.