This recent year has me pondering on relationships. Relationships of all kinds. There's those relationships with close family members (the ones we don't choose), relationships with our best of chosen friends (best choices ever), relationships with our acquaintances and relationships with those we don't really know.  Years ago, my husband used to point out to me that we treat our own family members worse than we do people we do not know. Meaning that most of us are comfortable with our family members and they bear the brunt of our lack of patience, when we are hangry or stressed, or when we feel the need to correct them on certain behaviors we don't tolerate. We would save the best of ourselves for our friends and acquaintances, holding back our biting tongue and opinions, and presenting a good view of ourselves. We also would treat strangers kindly enough. My husband would lament that it was too bad we didn't reserve more of that kindness and respect for those we k...