Isolation

​The ABC did a story on isolation.  I saw it a few times.  It was a part of their Mental Health Week and they have a number of ideas on their web site.  In it a guy said things I really liked, and thought were put so much better than I could ever hope to put it.
They went to a property located in the Gulf of Carpentaria.  Kilometres from anywhere.  The property ran cattle.  It had the owners and workers.
They interviewed one of the workers and it was a couple of things he said that really rang a bell with me.  It is something I feel no matter where I am.  He said he has worked on a number of properties and found that the best were always the ones that made you feel like family.  At the time he was with a number of the other workers in an open area shed.
It was the family part that got me.  It seems to me it does not matter so much if it is actual family or like family there is security there.  Sometimes I can be an absolute idiot.  Yet family never stops loving me.  It is never like “that’s it!  You’ve reached your limit!  No more love for you young man.” (they would say young man if I was lucky or they really needed glasses.)
What I love about family is failing does not make me a failure.  Family assists me to my feet, helps me brush myself off and sets me on my way.  Even when it is tough love and I need discipline or correction of instruction, it is still love.  I may be denied something.  Yet it’s denial is for my good.  I may not understand at the time, and I may not be willing to admit I need it.  But there is every chance it is harder for the one denying, than the object of it. 
No doubt about it, love can be hard.  The intention may be to alleviate a problem, but to do so would not solve the problem.  I think of things needing to break their shell to come into the world, and how the breaking of the shell is a part of the strengthening process for them.
I may so want to help.  It seems it would be good to assist them by breaking the shell for them.  Yet breaking the shell is the last thing they need.  It is not good for them.  The best-case scenario is that it weakens them.  Sometimes love is like a hands off and letting go thing.
That sorta relates to something else he said.  He was commenting on the internet (it is only available via satellite).  He said no matter how much people enjoy the work, or the country, a part of their heart can be elsewhere, and it is great to be able to keep in touch.
Love to me is not like a percentage of 100 thing.  That is, one person may get 60%, another 30 and another 10.  Love to me is many 100 percents.  I love each of my family 100%.  I try to love strangers 100%,
Some ask how is love manifest?  To me it is giving my all to what is in front of me.  I don’t seek an alternative.  What is in front of me deserves 100% of my love.  Sometimes that is a challenge.  But I know I would like others to give their all for me, so it really is the least I can do for others.