A common perception of love is a relationship with a significant other, a family member, a friend, a pet. There is love for what we do, our passions, our jobs. But the dominant ideal of love is that which consists on affection and interactions. But, what do we mean by interactions? Is love exclusively expressed with words, hugs and kisses?
Love is being human. Our foundation is love based. As cliché and peachy as it sounds, it is true. Do you think we were brought to this fisical realm by anything other than love? Love is something that emanates naturally from us. We see this in children, and animals. No matter how many times you scold a child, they will always return to you with love. We experiment this with our mothers, they always have the capacity to spread love even when they are dissapointed or mad at us.
Love is not something we can not feel. On the contrary, we have created a resistance towards expressing love. Nowadays, the more love you express the more hippie or crazy you are. But why?
Why is it we view love as something so distant and rare. Why is it we prefer to act with negative behaviors? Why is it we mention how much love we lack? When in reality the love starts within ourselves.
We talk all the time about how much this world needs a change but we continue to manifest ourselves lacking love and understanding. We don’t love nor understand ourselves. How can we expect the best out of the world around us if we share the worst of ourselves? We can only expect to be compensated with what we give. If we give hate, we shall receive it.
Understanding these ideas can be a little challenging if we think about how the world works right now and how we are programmed to react. We are rarely scolded with love, we rarely express ourselves with love. On the contrary, we tend to defend our ideals, and ourselves from a defensive posture.
We rarely teach and are taught through love. We are quick to be impatient with the people around us.
Patience, empathy, compassion, understanding, communicating, respect; all of these characteristics can only be accquired through love. We cannot understand the person next to us if we do not practice love, we cannot lend a helping hand if we do not know love.
And love is not what Hollywood has presented to us. Love is not dates, presents and flowers. Love is supporting, love is helping, love is being human. And being human is not about how many kisses you give on a daily basis, being human is about how many good desires you gave out daily, how many lives you touched by simply similing.
We have lost our human touch, we have become frivolous and selfish creatures. We have grown in competition with life, and the world around us. Somehow, we have lost the notion that there is no good resulting from hate.
Let us start viewing life through a loving lens. Let us live in gratitude. Give thanks because you are breathing, reading, eating, because you have people around you that can help you if you are in need. You are not alone in this world. Let’s give thanks because in spite of all the crazy things happening we still have an opportunity to make a change, as small as it may be.
We cross paths with millions of people daily, we connect with them through our phones, on the streets, they are all around us. Smile at them for a change, confuse them with your warmness, be the change. Be the person who enters a room and lights it up. Be the person you wish entered your life and changed it for the better. We have so much power to inspire one another, a simple “good morning”, “have a nice day”, “have a nice meal”. A simple good desire can change a person’s life. Wouldn’t you like to be a part of the world’s growth?
KEKERÉ 