Love is All You Need

My brother and I often marvel at how on the ball dad can be in some moments.  Like the one day he told me what temperature it was outside.  Not sure if it was an educated guess, but one cannot tell with him.  The other night, I stopped by to see him at dinner time.  A couple of volunteer students were standing beside him at the table, blocking his view of me.  I tried to sneak in, but I saw him register my face.  I ducked behind his chair, but I saw him rotate his head and put his hand up for me.  Sometimes there is just no pulling the wool over his eyes!

The past few times I have visited dad, he's reached out his hand to draw me in to give me a kiss goodbye and thank me very much for coming.  My heart does a little skip.  Communication is key in our lives... after all, we live in the information age!  When you want to connect with someone, you can text, email, call, Skype, Facebook, Instagram, Tweet.  Our communication is firing at top speed, always remembering connections and conversations.  Visiting with dad; he usually cannot communicate more than a sentence or two.  This has been frustrating and sad.  Rather quite frustrating for someone who likes to blab the day away.  Favourite family comments to me were; "Don't feel you have to talk." or "Are you talking just to listen to the sound of your voice?"  Yes, I like to natter away, so you can understand how I feel when I want to download to dad and he just doesn't get it.

In thinking on this, and recalling dad's response to me, that's when I had the thought... "Love is all you need."  You don't always need to sit there and fill the void with words.  Rather, I can sit there and give dad his dinner, or read a magazine.  He is reassured by my presence (and perhaps I am reassured by his) and he knows I am there because I care.  In our modern world of constant chatter, we (I) need to be reminded that there is nothing wrong (or awkward) with sitting still and being quiet.

(The photo above was shot as I walked out the door to head to dad's the other day.  Bushfires in the west carried smoke over Sydney and turned the sun into an eerie red ball.)