The Daily Write
Love is Our True Nature
Love, kindness and the ripple effect
June 5th Writing prompt: Do you believe in true love? Why or why not?
I believe love is the natural state of every human being. Our experiences, perceptions and life lessons shape and re-shape us as we grow, but at our core, we love.
Your true nature is love. There’s nothing you can do about it. — Byron Katie
“True love” is a concept that feels kind of antiquated to me. Maybe it’s because I’m almost 50, happily married and enjoying a new perspective on life, but I’ve zoomed out to see love in the bigger picture.
Before I met my husband I searched for “love”. Along the way I learned to love myself, and to be grateful for the love and kindness of everyone around me. It’s kind of a lifelong study, but I feel like that’s the essential piece of this puzzle. From there we just have to try to remember that love is just who we are. Occasionally we forget.
Loving people live in a loving world. Hostile people live in a hostile world. Same world. — Wayne Dyer
I see now that there were times when I was so focused on my failed attempts to find a partner to love, that I took for granted the love that was all around me.
My family, in more ways than I can count. The friends who made me laugh and gave me a shoulder or an ear when I needed one. The cats and dogs who loved me every time I walked in the door. The stranger at a banquet who refused to eat his own dinner until I got my vegetarian meal (while the rest of the table had their food). The quiet guy from the 4th floor who always held the elevator for me. The coworker who would sneak small gifts into my mailbox simply because something made her think of me. Gestures of kindness large and small. They all boiled down to one thing.
Love.
I now appreciate that I am surrounded by love at all times. Friends, family, my husband, our pets, people at work, and even people I meet that I may never see again. Love is exchanged in the tiniest moments of kindness.
Love is has a ripple effect that is infinite. Someone on the receiving end of an act of kindness, will be kind to another. That person will be kind to another. And so it goes.
This morning my best friend told me about her mail carrier who rescued a kitten a few weeks ago while on his route. In a simple moment of kindness and love for a tiny helpless creature, he made sure she was safe before continuing to do his job. “She was tangled in the bushes, I can’t leave her there” he had said.
That kitten now has a home, and thanks to him, she is safe and loved. That kind mail carrier was killed in an accident two days ago while driving his mail truck. He was 41.
The tributes pouring in on his Facebook page all essentially describe him as “one of the kindest souls I ever met”. His acts of compassion sent perpetual ripples of love and kindness out into the world. If that isn’t “true love”, I don’t know what is.
Key message: Love is the foundation for life and how we live. Start by loving yourself. Treat others with love and kindness, remembering that is your true nature. You will touch more lives than you can ever imagine.