A Well

"The hardest of all is learning to be a well of affection, and not a fountain; to show them we love them not when we feel like it, but when they do."   Nan Fairbrother

photo from here

I have been thinking a lot about this.  This idea of being patient with love and its ability to change and grow and sometimes perhaps wane.  Letting another be, instead of forcing some form of happiness that is locked in and unable to morph for the good or the bad.  I read an article once about a "snail whisperer" who used to tap on the shell to see if the snail was there but later learned the only way to get it to come out was on its own.  The writer compared that to happiness; instead of tapping on someone else's shell to check on their happiness, let that expression come genuinely and authentically for that person.