I hear love

One Bright Idea... brought to you by Judi Richardson

I Hear Love

At one point I can remember telling others, in a rather resentful way, that my father only spoke to me of sports. I wanted him to tell me he loved me, to tell me he was proud of me.

Instead, he taught me to recite the names and cities of all the baseball teams in both leagues by the time I was five years old. He took me to see baseball, hockey, football, marathons, tennis and track meets. We watched professional, college, high school and Little League sports. He taught me of batting averages, ground rule doubles and how to keep score. He read me the sports page every morning at breakfast. I learned a great deal about sports because I loved and wanted to please my father.

What I recognize today is that my father was, all that time, speaking to me of his love. He loved sports, particularly baseball. It was the very stuff of his dreams. In sharing sports with me, he was sharing with me what he loved most, in the best way he knew how. I've learned to listen for my Dad's love in retrospect. It's so clear to me now.

I can choose to hear love in the sigh of the wind, in the songs of the birds, in the laughter of children, in the roar of the airplane taking off, and in the melody of my favorite music. Once I remembered that all I needed to do was listen for the love, I could hear it everywhere I went.

Can you hear the love today?

I invite you to hear love in anyway you can imagine. You may just hear its murmurs.