All you need is love?

This is a question people have asked for a long time. Is it true? Is love all we really need? I think it would depend on who you ask. When it comes to young children, love is all you need. You know your parents love you and spend time with you, that is what is most important to a child. You don't understand the importance of money or work or health, all that matters is love. Maybe that is what is so appealing about childhood, why we would all do anything to go back, because we were innocent and love really was what made the world go round. As an adult, I now see things differently. Love isn't all there is, we need so much more. Some would say that makes me cynnical, but I am not. I want to believe that love is all we need and for the most part I agree with that statement, however I see that there is a lot more that goes along with love. As a parent, your role is not only to love, but to protect, comfort, support, provide, but common sense says that those things automatically go with love. Working at this job, I see that for some it does not. I could complain yet again about the father I work for, but I will spare the details and say that he loves his children and provides for them, but he does not support, comfort or protect them, at least not in the simplest ways. And well S sees only that her father loves her, I see that he does love her but not as much as he should. Our father loves us. He loves us uncondiotionally. It never mattered if we were going to be a lawyer, a teacher or a photographer, or if we would have decided to be a ballerina, a racecar driver or a politician. He loved us enough to support us, wherever our dreams took us. He provided for us, working a job he has hated for over half his life to give us all we wanted, or as much as he could. He took care of the home. He made sure it was clean and healthy and safe for his kids. He wouldn't let tons of ants go crawling around the house for weeks, but that's another story. My mother did all of this too, loving in all the ways a parent should. And it wasn't just in loving the kids where they loved in all the right ways, it was also with each other. My parents used to fight a lot when I was growing up. When I was younger, I couldn't understand how they could fight like they did and still stay together. Now I see why, it is because they love each other, but they also respect, support, comfort and protect each other. My dad is a fishoholic, and sometimes it drives my mother crazy because he spends too much money on fishing stuff and they fight about it, but she eventually lets it go. She knows that fishing is what he loves and she supports that. She respects his passions. My mom had to find a new job a few years back and then another when she didn't like the one she found and my dad supported her decision to find one she liked better, he wanted her to be happy. Whether it is with your children or with your spouse, love isn't all we need. We need respect, support, comfort, protection. But if you are like me, those things go hand and hand with love, and when I find that kind of love and when I have my own kids, that is the way I will love. And then maybe love will be all that I need. Thanks Mom and Dad for all you do and for the love you gave us growing up and the love you give each other. Happy Father's Day Dad.