Love is All You Need

Close your eyes.
Relax.
Forget the world you know.

Now... Imagine a secret, paitient and powerful enemy.

An enemy so capable of terror that the mere knowledge of its existence to most people would be enough to eradicate all hope and ensure certain surrender from despair.

Imagine that it attacks daily because it is not overcome in a single blow.
Death and destruction are all that will satisfy it and with each infliction of damage, an infection that slowly drains the life of its victim is sure to follow.

It is relentless.
It is tireless.
It is merciless.
It is covert.

It can look like nothing.
It can look like anything and everything.

Everywhere and nowhere.
It is unseen and unknown by most.

As with all great enemies, it works dilligently to be seen as anything but.
Even those that do see, dismiss it as nothing, perhaps even friendly.

At times your roles will be viewed as reversed by those who do not know.
You as the mighty enemy, and it the powerless victim.

But you know otherwise.
You know the danger of affording it a single ounce of sympathy, or showing a single crack in the armor.

There can be no whim of weakness, no measure of mercy, no hint of hospitality.

Now, imagine that you alone have been entrusted to defeat it.

Secretly
Silently
Without alarm or even the slightest hint of the battle to anyone around you.

No one knowing you had done and continued to do so.
All day
Every day

You are the protector.
You are the provider.
There can be no victory celebrations or even comfort from seemingly certain defeat.

There is you and there is it.
That is all.

You must fight with all your might.
There is no rest from the battle against an enemy that does not rest.

And at the end of it all, you must be able to say without reservation, that you fought with all your might for the preservation of ones you love.

You have now imagined what it is like to be a man, a father.

It is a greater task than those who, are not either, can possibly fathom.