We can love our family and still refuse to buy into their issues. We can love our family but refuse their efforts to manipulate, control, or produce guilt in us.
It took me a long time to realize it is okay to keep distance in any toxic relationship. It took me a long time to be able to own my life, regardless of what anyone thought of my choices.
There are some in my family who I love to see and who I am very close with. Others, I rarely see. To them I send a card maybe twice a year, or an e-mail, to stay connected enough and not become totally estranged...but the truth is, they are probably as happy as I am to keep a distance between us. And that is all perfectly okay.
We don't have to be the Waltons. I prefer to be more like the Baldwin sisters with some mystery and spice in their life.
