1289 ESTABLISHING A SENSE OF PERSONAL SAFETY RIGHT OFF THE BAT ...

2015
If you ask why love in its purest form creates feelings, floating lightly on white clouds of happiness, I'd reply:  In the beginning, love is about giving the best of oneself to the object of our affections regardless of what we receive in return.  It's later, when defensive reactions arise, based in fear of loss, that love grows a bit more distant, step by step, until sonnets, which sing of emotion, bubbling forth, naturally, from deep within our hearts, grow ever more faint, as fear causes words of love to dry up in our throats ... and as change, born of fear, sees one mind motor away, the fishing expedition on the part of the other begins until words, floating on love, are so few and far between that all that's left of love is distant echoes of happiness from times past ... And in this classic way doth the purity of heaven-sent-love transform two people, delighting in an idyllic day at the beach to feeling like a pair of salmon, exhausted from swimming upstream ...

From the moment the twins crossed over the threshold from their world into mine, two crestfallen expressions, covering a pair of identical, olive toned, handsome faces, conveyed the depth of their angst, leaving no doubt that their upstream swim had tuckered both teen-aged spirits out ...

I gathered first one, then the other into my arms, and instead of bouncing back with a smile, each teen took a turn melting into my embrace at least long enough to convey that the gift of love, untarnished by defensiveness, condemnation, judgement or guilt creates a sense of personal safety that's actually palpable—in fact, I have no doubt that within those first intimate moments when we'd shared so much without so much as having uttered even one word, the twins sensed our bond of trust strengthening so naturally as to have melted away any fear of failure on their part while in my presence.

Once personal safety had been solidly established, the teens felt cleansed of fear of disappointing me in any way.  And with the immediacy of our emotional bonding, vulnerability had reason to strengthen as quickly as my spirit led theirs to float toward my kitchen table, where heartfelt brainstorming sessions have historically taken place in the round for many a year ...