I know, I can tell.

From the movie SherryBaby:

Sherry (sister): You love me.
Ryan (brother): Yes, I do love you.
Sherry: I know, I can tell.

How very true this is. Although loving others is hard work, it is always easy to tell it is being done. It's easy to tell when someone is trustworthy. It is easy to tell when they're on your side, an advocate for your growth and care and nurturance and good. It's easy to sense that someone relies on you too, so it's not a one-sided relationship; the joy of giving to them is essential for you to feel loved, too. ALong those lines, you can tell someone loves you when they receive what you offer them as a precious gift. They value your role in their life.

You can tell someone loves you by the way they ask questions about your day, or when they follow up on something you said a long way back. You know someone loves you when their gifts toward you show generosity, forethought, time given, or some combination of these. You know someone loves you when their concern for your good cannot be trumped by any other compromising force -- be it other peoples' views and influences, the distracting and oftentimes divergent demands of life (goes the seed in the soil parable ring a bell?), or the mistakes you've each made towards each other.

I love that you can tell when someone loves you. It's one of life's biggest reliefs.