All You Need is Love

I’m not sure why things happen as they do. I used to firmly believe that things happened for some type of reason whether that reason be good, bad, important, insignificant, etc. I believed that there was some rhyme or reason to all things. I’ve changed my mind. I’m not sure whether my family and I were just lucky for the first 24 years of my life or what, but we’ve adapted to a new “normal”.

We used to be able to tell each other that everything would be okay. It’s hard to say that now. Not because we don’t want things to be okay, but simply because we’re unsure. We never expected our beautiful, sweet and young Grammy to be stricken with a form of dementia that has taken her from us. We never expected cancer to hit our family so hard. We never expected to have depression and anxiety take over our loved ones’ lives. We never expected loved ones to lose jobs and have to worry about money. God knows we didn’t expect the twins to come 3 months early and be in intensive care.

So, one might say you have to expect the unexpected or to be thankful for the things you DO have. Those are simply words. Words that don’t mean anything when you’re in the thick of it. Or so it seems. Sure, people try to encourage, sympathize or comfort or offer help, but nothing actually helps. They know this and we know this. You know when you’re on the opposite end of things and things are shitty for someone else. You know that your words don’t “help”.

Yet, those words… that comfort… the offers… they are important. People going through tough times need those words even though they don’t really “help”. I’m not sure what they do. They do something. Maybe they remind us that life doesn’t stop for our problems whether they are big or small. Maybe the words are there so our brains try to FEEL better or convince us that we can get through something. Maybe we need those words because we need to remember that in spite of all the crap we go through, there’s love around us.

I know it sounds a little corny (I hate that word), but I think there’s some truth to it. The only thing that wakes us up in the morning sometimes is the love we have for others. If I didn’t love the babies so much, I wouldn’t be able to do this. If my Papa didn’t love my Grammy so much, he wouldn’t be able to drag himself out of bed. If my family didn’t love and support each other, some of us might have given up. But, there’s something that drives us to do what we need to do. It’s not the feeling that we HAVE to do it. It’s not the feeling of WANTING to do it necessarily. It’s more than that.

I’m not sure what I’m rambling about, but I felt the need to ramble. I think that too often we take for granted the love we have for others and the love they have for us. I guess it’s important to always remember that no matter how shitty things are, that love exists. It may be the only thing that allows us to fight through the tough times. I know my family feels like we’re all running on empty right now… I couldn’t agree more. I also know we can all keep going, though… Because we love each other. All you need is love, right?