Respond with love.
I’d like to take a minute to talk to you about love. No, this is not an article about Christmas. This is an article about your life, and what you want to do with it. There’s a choice about this that you can make any day, a stance that you can take and pursue with stern conviction from this moment on, like some of the greatest human souls have done before you. To whatever comes your way, your choice is to respond with love.
There’s enough negativity around. Don’t ever add to it.
Unfortunate as it is, hatred, antagony, annoyances or disturbances are part of our everyday experience. There’s the colleague at work who just can’t stand you, your pissed-off girlfriend who had a terrible day, the car diving by that sprays mud on you. Now and again, there’s little you can do about these things. However, you can do everything about how you respond to them!
It’s time you take responsibility for your interactions with this wonderful, crazy, unpredictable, moody, emotional, conflicted, harmonious world around you, and the magnificent beings that inhabit it. Let your prime motivators be love, and the pursuit of beauty. Look for them in all things until you can find them even in the direst of places. And make no mistake, this takes practice.
Whoever endeavours to rain on your parade, show them your appreciation for their human essence, their desires, emotions, flaws. Shake their hand and invite them into your life, tell them you have nothing but respect for them, and mean it.
Whatever frame of reality they have, whatever their character and goals are, you may not agree with them at all. And still, they’re your peers on a very deep level, and there, you are one.
Never stray from your values.
When love, truth and beauty become your immutable convictions, an immense inner strength will stem from acting in accordance with them at all times.
Instead of outcomes, your reference for success and fulfillment now lies within: you no longer depend on results as much, because even if you fail in an endeavour, you will feel satisfaction for never abandoning your core beliefs and values. Even more so, you never let anybody step on them either.
I’ll say it again: respond with love. This is Christmas, love is all around now, as they say. Do you have the resolve and strength to carry that attitude into the next month, the next year, make it an integral part of your everyday life? Keep your eyes open for adverse situations, where conflict brews, and face them with this attitude. This is not about bending over backwards to make others feel fine – assert your truth and stand for your values.
