Power of Touch

TOUCH. Sometimes words just don’t do. No matter how powerful the written or spoken word is, there are things we want to say to others that would be difficult to express through letters and scribbles. Perhaps cooking for them can help, maybe even just going for a drive with them. A quiet but potent way of making your emotions known is also through touch.

Touch. Artwork by my husband.

Stories on the Power of Touch

I remember this one time I was watching TV at my parents’ home. My Dad was walking around the room where I was in, fixing some of his things. Before leaving the room, he went over to me and patted me on the head. It was one of my favorite moments. We have a quiet relationship, my Dad and I, and even if he doesn’t say “I love you” out loud as much, I know that’s what the pat on the head meant for him.

I remember my late grandfather, a military man with a booming laugh. He wasn’t demonstrative, but that didn’t stop me from giving him a kiss on the cheek and one-way hugs. That’s why when he reciprocated one time with a strong pat on my back, I was pleasantly surprised. Soon after that, when I’d tell him I loved him, he’d say “I love you” back with those strong pats on my back.

I remember a time when my Mom was recovering from a gall bladder operation. She was very much in pain and called for me to be at her side. While she lay in bed, I smoothed her hair and lightly stroked her forehead, the way she did when I was sick as a child. It calmed her, she said. I watched the pain in her face disappear as she drifted off to sleep, to the rhythm of gentle caresses on her forehead.

With the right person, in the right situation, and with the right intention, touch effectively expresses so many thoughts and emotions that words just can’t. Maybe it’s because that with a touch I am made to feel “You’re alive, I’m alive. We’re alive together!” — less alone, comforted, more loved.

“It’s the first sense we experience in the womb and the last one we lose before death,” it says here. Perhaps that is why touch therapy is very important for babies and for the sick. Maybe it’s because sincerity can be felt most in a touch. Words can be abused and taken advantage of, but touch could be less gullible. Quiet and potent, that is the beauty of touch.

When was the last time you sincerely and quietly touched someone? When was the last time you were sincerely and quietly touched by another?

Hi! I'm Toni Tiu, and I've been blogging at at Wifely Steps since 2003. This started as a blog to help newly weds adjust to married life. It has evolved into a home and parenting blog. I write about things close to my heart -- good eats, good reads, family, marriage, and the little things that make everyday happy.