Love as gratitude

"Ghosh trusted me to do whatever it is I would choose to do.  That, too, is love." Abraham Verghese

I have finished the book, Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese.  What a delightful read.  Full of passion, pathos, intrigue.  The above sentence captured me.  It is what I tried to do as a parent:  trust my children to do whatever he or she chose; knowing it would be what is best for them.  It would seem it is the love that the Divine must have for us; exampled in our freedom of choice --- which we exercise sometimes in our best interest and sometimes not.  So, today, I am grateful for all the people who have loved me enough to trust me to do what I choose to do at any moment.  And, I thank God for the grace to extend that level of love to others.  Even in being a caregiver for someone with dementia, there are many ways we can trust the person to choose rightly.  Perhaps our task is to discern when to intervene and when to trust.