Chance
mixed with
a touch of hope,
a pinch of good luck, 
a dollop of consistency
and a hell of a lot of hard work
helped Dawn break new frontier.
All this culminates in a choice
Of a rock star status and 
having her cake and eating it, too.  
She surprised others by choosing 
love.

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This is a 55-word story for G-Man.
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Is love too often relegated to door number three, or whatever the last resort is?
Is love bigger than chance, choice, hope, luck, faith, consistency, hard work, etc?
Do we choose love often enough?
Do our so-called leaders?
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Image by tinou bao
 

The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

I’m no expert at interpreting RLS’s words but this quote speaks to me of the way being human, in its most fulfilling sense, unfolds naturally. If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably experienced how easy it is to complicate being human. Any number of things can get in the way of us being as true to ourselves as possible. There’s fear. There’s doubt. There’s denial. There’s apathy. There’s ignorance. There’s apathy resulting from ignorance and vice versa. And so on and so forth.

But I suspect that when we commit to engage in our own lives, we can expect a certain degree of transformation that lets us access the value of what RLS refers to as the best things in life.

Some basic things that can be incredibly easy to complicate:

Friendship. For children, it’s as simple as There you are; let’s play. For grownups, other things come into play such as strings attached, an unspoken expectation of reciprocity and keeping score. Perhaps there’s a good reason for how grownups, communities, countries form alliances. But who says there needs to be a reason to be a friend?

Standing up for what’s right. Maybe we flip-flop and flail in the midst of a huge domestic or foreign policy issue where we don’t know all the facts. Maybe we flail when an unprecedented foreign policy issue makes the headlines. But I wonder if the most basic sense of right and wrong is or isn’t instilled in most of us. And if something isn’t looking so black and white with a little prodding, then perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to make judgments.

Apologizing for our fault(s). Pretend nothing’s wrong? Sweep it under the rug? Hope the offense goes unnoticed? Maybe. Except for a little thing called a conscience. It’s this pesky little thing that may keep us from getting a good night’s sleep if we know deep down that we owe someone an apology.

Acknowledging the world doesn’t revolve around any one person or one nation. For a four-year old, this is a real challenge. But as one’s ego develops, so does the Freudian super-ego evolve. We hope.

Love. If we want love, we give love. A whole bunch of people figured this out well before our generation. How we want love manifests in many ways; some peaceful, some violent. How we give love, how we feed and sustain the ticking of the metronome of the heart is a human capacity worth every poem ever penned, every lyric ever sung and every story ever told.

Maybe one day, we’ll learn to give love as much as we want love. And maybe then we can hope to truly simplify the complicated.

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I’m sure I’ve missed some. Care to add anything?

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Image by Thai Jasmine,

Valentine’s Day. In Tina’s famous words, what’s love got to do with it? It’s possible we’ve all asked this question at some point when we see the onslaught of glitzy merchandising that distracts us from the true meaning of this day. The ubiquitous red heart symbol that litters store shelves, the jewelry ads with the happy couple, the perfect dinner reservation that is impossible to secure — there is nothing subliminal about commercial forces preying on our desire to please our partner on this day.

But I know that I’m not alone in thinking that this is not what love is. Here are some words by those far more eloquent than I on the subject:

Love has no desire but to fulfill itself. To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving. ~Kahlil Gibran

Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place. ~Zora Neale Hurston

My blogging buddy Arvind Devalia asked me a couple of questions recently: what’s your ideal Valentine Day and how can people bring more love into their lives everyday? Below are my reflections:

On a personal scale, my ideal Valentine’s Day is very simple. It is one spent enjoying the company of my family, appreciating the good lives that we have, and teaching my four year old son about love. Through dialogue and example, I hope to show him that love starts from within and can be shared not just with family and friends but also with strangers by showing them kindness and compassion.

On a larger scale, I would love to see Valentine’s Day become less about the one day of fine dining and expensive gifts or the limited notion of romance between two people but rather a day that symbolizes how we all need love and can lift each other up by being inclusive about giving and receiving love.

We can bring more love into our lives by loving oneself as well as others through acts of kindness, compassion, generosity, forgiveness and acceptance.

Valentine’s Day? May yours be about love.

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Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day?
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Image of St. Valentine courtesy of Wikipedia

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.
Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it.
Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.
– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from his book Strength to Love

With any luck, we learn these truths unintentionally, not from books, not from dreaming, but rather from experience. We also learn from experience that love can be quite an endurance test. It’s true about loving family members, friends, a life partner or a child. Without time, effort, patience and proper care, love can wither and die. Thankfully, once it lives in our hearts, it has a fighting chance of survival, to flow, to replenish. How? By sharing it with others. By loving others.

For those of us who have experienced love’s superiority over hatred, may we have the strength to continue to practice choosing love above all else with consistency.

For those who aren’t yet convinced of love’s magnanimity, may we show them love so that it will bloom in all our hearts.

Happy MLK, Jr. day.

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Image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com