One evening I had my hand placed on my boy’s chest when an occupational therapist came into his hospital room. She said to me, “Do you want to know how to love your child?” Excited, I replied, “Yes!” My only concern for my son was that he didn’t suffer and that he felt loved while he was here on earth. The therapist led my hand to his right foot. She then cupped his foot gently and told me that he was always pricked and prodded in his right foot. It was the hurt place. So I replaced her hand and I gently cupped his right foot. She explained to me that my boy needed his foot caressed to know that every touch isn’t to cause pain. Taking a lesson from that event made me think about how all of us treat each other. How many times do we touch each other’s hurt places, which end up causing pain? Many relationships could be mended if we touched each other’s hurt places in a soft way in an effort to give love. A lot of times if your hurt place is touched incorrectly you tend to  to touch and hurt other people’s hurt places-even when you don’t do it intentionally. My son taught me how to be gentle when it comes to people’s hurt places and how to show them love. 

-Written by: Chris Jones