Love. A basic need. It starts in the womb and grows as the child grows. Mother, father, brother, sister. All have a common thread: Love. It is love that holds together the family through the hard times. It holds your hand through job loss and death. Love is there to smile at you when you triumph. Tying your shoes, riding a bike and catching your first fly ball. It is love, always. Love is there when you climb to the top of the slide and it is there in the dark of night to scare away the monsters under the bed.
Too often it is the love of family, friends, and each other that is forgotten. The neglect is often leaves scars that are minute, but there none the less. In our search for the almighty romantic love, it is the basic love that is forgotten. The first love. After divorce, it is often love that keeps us going. The love we knew as babies; Family and friends. Hugging our shoulders and giving us the foundation we need to stand on. It is the love of friends, family that we should remember. Love cycles. Ebbs and sways; like the tides crashing upon the shores of our emotions.
The search for the one, the roses, the ring. Ideals and dreams. It is the love we are born with and into that needs to be celebrated today. Greeting cards and boxes of chocolates are nothing but tokens. Easily found, easily consumed. Flowers grow and bloom. They blossom in red and pink and white. All to often the love that gives withers just as fast. Leaving behind a sad heart. It is the heart that remembers the basic love and bids us to return to from the darkness. Back into the light.
True love needs no tokens. True love keeps its arms open and ready to catch you when you fall. Remember the basic love. The only love; son, daughter, mother, father, sister, brother, wife, husband. Brighten the days and weeks of forever. Three little words: I. LOVE. YOU.
Adeventures in Parenting 