Here's my 2p, we are novices but this sort of works:

(b1 is a branch off master)

git checkout master
git pull --rebase
git checkout b1
git pull --rebase
git merge master (to merge everything forward)
<test everything>
<commit changes (if necessary)>
git push
git checkout master
git merge b1
<fix conflicts if any>
<test everything>
<commit changes (if necessary)>
git commit
git push

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I'd love to know if this is bananas.