An inherited wind-up clock only keeps time if somebody keeps winding it. So does a family.

Certain things never run on their own. A mechanical clock stops the moment the winding stops, and family connection behaves the same way: the calls, the Sunday meal, the person who remembers everybody’s birthday. From outside it all looks automatic. In practice it is somebody’s quiet weekly effort.

Work out who does the winding in your family and take over one small part of it. Make the call, organise the gathering, remember the birthday. The job is deeply unglamorous, and nothing keeps going without somebody doing it.