Yesterday was the anniversary of my first wedding 51 years ago. When I mentioned it to my daughters, both were aware and one of them said, yes, she was aware of good anniversaries. She is in the midst of helping a friend extricate herself from an abusive marriage after some very painful physical abuse during which a neighbor called the police.
When she was first asked to go be with her friend, she and I talked a lot about the men in our lives ~ the loving, caring, compassionate men who are manly enough to know it and not have to prove it on the bodies of their wives and children. My father, my first husband (her father), my present husband, our son and sons-in-law. All such good men with no thought of hurting anyone.
Last night I was chatting on line with a friend across the country when I suddenly realized that he too is exactly that kind of man, gentle, loving, delighting in his family. And so I stopped our rather light-hearted banter and became serious and told him Thank You!!
I am not sure we say thank you often enough. Maybe we take our loving husbands, friends, partners for granted because (Thank God) the abuser is still a rarity. But not as rare as we would like to think. So ~ say thank you. Acknowledge the men you know who love and care and hold in healthy ways. Here’s to you, gentle men!
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