My love for the child asleep in the crib, the child's need for me, for my vigilance, had made my life valuable in a way that even the most abundantly offered love, my parents', my brother's, even Tom's, had failed to do. Love was required of me now--to be given, not merely to be sought and returned.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the profound value of love that is selflessly given, particularly in the context of caring for a child.
Alice McDermott reflects on the transformative nature of love, particularly the unconditional love a parent feels for their child. This love demands vigilance and commitment, marking a significant shift from the love received from family and friends into a more responsibility-driven, nurturing form of love that imparts a deep sense of purpose and value to one's life.
In practice
In a speech about parenting, one might use this quote to illustrate the depth of love that comes with child-rearing.
We turned onto the last landing. Going out with this guy, I thought, would involve a lot of silly laughter, some wit--the buzz of his whispered wisecracks in my ear. But there would be as well his willingness to reveal, or more his inability to conceal, that he had been silently rehearsing my name as he climbed the stairs behind me. There would be his willingness to bestow upon me the power to reassure him. He would trust me with his happiness.
The lesson, I suppose, is that none of us have much control over how we will be remembered. Every life is an amalgam, and it is impossible to know what moments, what foibles, what charms will come to define us once we're gone. All we can do is live our lives fully, be authentically ourselves and trust that the right things about us, the best and most fitting things, will echo in the memories of us that endure.
Publishing a short story can sometimes feel like shouting into the dark... your words come out, and then nothing... but I don't think that's why I tend to write novels rather than stories.
It was one of those fine little love stories that can make you smile in your sleep at night.
I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep... Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.
Catelyn wanted to run to him, to kiss his sweet brow, to wrap him in her arms so tightly that he would never come to harm.
A man when he is making up to anybody can be cordial and gallant and full of little attentions and altogether charming. But when a man is really in love he can't help looking like a sheep.
In true love it is the soul that envelops the body.
Love Came.... _x000D_ and became like blood in my body. _x000D_ It rushed through my veins and _x000D_ encircled my Heart. _x000D_ _x000D_ Everywhere I looked, _x000D_ I saw One Thing.... _x000D_ Love's Name written _x000D_ on my limbs, _x000D_ on my left palm, _x000D_ on my forehead, _x000D_ on the back of my neck, _x000D_ on my right big toe... _x000D_ _x000D_ Oh, my friend, _x000D_ all that you see of me _x000D_ is just a shell, _x000D_ and the rest belongs to Love.
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