“Loving is …”. In the 1960s, New Zealand artist Kim Grove invented this series, which portrayed a boy and a girl in love with each other. When these lovely figurines landed in Brazil I was a baby (yes, it’s been a long time!). But I think she is still a good example of what we mean by love.
If you are also from that time, I think your memory of the boy and the girl revolves around something peaceful, good and comforting. For me it means a time of rejoicing, when we were truly happy.
Oops! Now my brain has just played a trick. What do you mean “we were happy”? Well, it is very easy to believe that we were happy as a child, because love was something sublime, stripped of prejudices and judgments. But what prevents us from continuing to understand love as it was when we were children?
I grew up experiencing fragments of a feeling that everyone said was love. I saw my parents together, holding hands and happy. I also saw the affection with which my grandparents treated me and my brother. I also saw the love stamped on the muzzle of each animal that crossed my path. If you stop and watch, I can still feel all that love. Without longing. But I am sure that this is the same love that I see now permeating my children’s lives.
“Loving is …”
- Don’t judge.
- Do not criticize without first looking inside yourself.
- Helping those in need, even if we don’t know them.
- Go hand in hand with compassion, a feeling that is so necessary for everyone and so little experienced by most of us.
- Stripping off strings.
- Do not believe that the other deserves the evil that is falling on him.
- Cultivate fraternal and eternal loves.
- Understand the attitudes of others.
- Do not inflict suffering on the other.
- Do not condone injustices.
- Knowing oneself is part of a great divine kingdom, in which all men, animals and plants are equal.
- See yourself with humility.
- Fill your heart with happiness so that there is no room left for anger.
- Have patience with life.
Living with love is synonymous with spiritual elevation. Stinginess, anger and chaos have no place in the heart of those who see a world of love. You must be wondering if I don’t follow all the news about the atrocities that human beings commit with each other for vile purposes, the political scandals, the misfortunes caused by irrational people.
Yes, I see and I am very sad to realize that many of us do not know the real purpose of being here on Earth. But I choose to envision a blue and compassionate horizon, as I cannot wait for others to stop acting evil so that my world, and that of my children, becomes better.
I know that if I only have love to give, I will be able to touch some cold heart, even if it is just one, and change it. I think you, the reader, can also put love first. Let’s try it together. All of us.
