I spent two days cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Before tasting anything, my mother-in-law m0cked my food and homemade rolls. I smiled, packed every dish into my car, and left. Four hours later, their calls wouldn’t stop.

Nobody compared me to someone else.

Nobody treated kindness as something they were automatically entitled to receive.

My phone buzzed once.

A message from Diane.

We miss how things used to be.

I looked around the warm dining room.

Then I deleted the message.

They didn’t really miss the old version of our family.

They missed everything I used to quietly do for them.

And finally understanding the difference changed much more than one Thanksgiving dinner.