I am blessed with three sons and two daughters. My daughters regularly tell me they love me and I regularly tell them the same. It is the way of daughters and the woman one has become and one will become. I naturally tell Lauren that I love her as well. It is harder with Shmulik’s wife because our communication is done in Hebrew and for all that I have lived here for 20 years and speak it relatively well, it remains a language that requires more energy, more thinking. Now that I think about it, I feel bad that I’ve never told Naama that I love her too…something I’ll fix next time I see her!
By contrast, it has almost always been harder to get my sons to tell me that they love me, though I probably tell them that I love them as much as I tell my daughters. It is the way of boys and to often, the men that they become.
Instead, what they cannot put into words, they put into action…if you are blessed.
This morning, Elie got into my car and said, “tell me you love me and I’ll give you a surprise.” I thought he was talking to Lauren – they have a wonderful relationship and I often hear them tell each other that they love each other. Then, he pulled out a speaker device for my phone. Our car’s hands-free device has been funky lately and doesn’t work. With the speaker, I can talk on the phone as I drive.
And later today, Shmulik sent me the most amazing picture. This too is a message of love. It’s a beautiful picture he took with his new phone and the panorama feature. I have to ask him where he was…but I love that he thought to send it to me.
As for my youngest, Davidi is in Poland – I write to him and he writes back. It’s not as cold as he expected it to be; it’s hard visiting the places he is seeing. I tell him I love him…and hope he holds that close. The next time I see him, it will be at the Western Wall – this is where they take them immediately after they land.
For today, I hold onto their love and hope they know how very much I love them (all of them) so very much.
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