Sunday breakfast, the same joke at every birthday. Small rituals are how families say “we’re still us.”

Families do not usually announce their closeness. They repeat things instead. The particular breakfast, the seat everybody knows is yours, the joke nobody finds funny anymore: each repetition quietly claims this group is still the same group. It works because nobody has to say anything sincere out loud.

Notice which of your family’s repeated things you have started skipping. Show up for one this week without being asked, and play along with the joke. If one has quietly died, you can start a smaller one that is easy to keep.