The greatest gift my father ever gave me was laughing with me at the movies and games I enjoyed as a child.
I remember some of those moment quite clearly. I remember watching Jackie Chan movies with him, and hearing him laugh at the funny scenes or being impressed by the action scenes made me… proud, I think.
It gave me the feeling that the things I was interested in where really cool and amazing. And by extension, I was too.
Thinking on this now, he must have been close to my current age back then. And I think today I am often doing the same thing with the people I care about.
What a beautiful skill.
Though I’m not sure if it can really be called a skill. It’s just a thing one can do. But laughing with someone this way can be a powerful tool to make others feel both encouraged and accepted.
And that sounds like a really wonderful combination.
An afterthought after drawing the image for this entry:
It’s iteresting how dark the art-filter drew the house. Makes me think that those moment where my father laughed with me where really like a little, flickering flame in a place that felt very difficult and dark as a child. (and it should be mentioned, that with everything that went “wrong”, both my parents did the best they could)