Sometimes when I’m upset with myself or the world around me, there is a cute little book that I pull off of my bookshelf and turn to for encouragement. It’s a book that my Grandmother used to read to me when I was very small.

I found need of it this past weekend. And so opened it up, anticipating the charming pictures and simple but heartfelt text.

There is a passage that talks about how good it feels to find someone who wants to listen to you, and doesn’t tell you to go away. This reminded me of Richard and how he appears to be so attentive to those around him.
After going back through the book, page by page, it was easy for me to see Richard/his characters in every passage. It may seem a bit odd to relate a children’s book to Richard Armitage and his career, but it has always been what lies underneath that captivates me.
tell me if you see what I do…
“Love Is A Special Way of Feeling“
by Joan Walsh Anglund
Love is a special way of feeling…

It is the safe way we feel when we sit on our mother’s lap with her arms around us tight and close.

It is the good way we feel when we talk to someone and they want to listen and don’t tell us to go away and be quiet.

It is the happy way we feel when we save a bird that has been hurt…

or feed a lost cat…

or calm a frightened colt.

Love is found in unexpected places…It is there in the quiet moment when we first discover a beautiful thing…when we watch a bird soar high against a pale blue sky…

when we see a lovely flower that no one else has noticed…

when we find a place that shelters us and is all our very own.

Love starts in little ways… It may begin the day we first share our thoughts with someone else…

or help someone who needs us…

Or, sometimes, it begins because, even without words, we understand how someone feels.

Love comes quietly…but you know when it is there, because, suddenly… you are not alone any more…and there is no sadness inside you.

Love is a happy feeling that stays inside your heart for the rest of your life.
