My father taught me that I love you does not always have to be expressed through words
Or gifts
   or grand gestures.
But that I love you Is shown by simply showing up.
By understanding,
And sometimes, making me understand.
Even when I don’t want to.

“I love you”
is him seeing that,
I am him,
Yet he chooses to better me.
To teach me,
To give me the strength I need
When words are not enough to make it through hard times.
My father does not say I love you a lot,
Because his father never told him.
So my father learned not say I love you
But to show it.