Every Day Is An Opportunity For Me To Love More

by Band of Banners
(Philippines)

Love, love, love, and more love!

I'm fascinated by the fact that every generation seems to have at least a good 20-35 years between them.

Like my Mom had me at age 21.

And I look at her now, still beautiful at age 77.

And I look at the young people in their early 20s who I'm coaching in my line of work, and I marvel at how they could be my sons and daughters, too.

To think my mom was that age when she had me.

Where these young kids are having the time of their life now (as they're still single), my mom got married at 18 and started having babies.

How women in those days had to mature early as they started having a family.

When you see people aging before you, even as you yourself are catching on, you wonder how you can make it all great for everyone.

But, of course, time catches up, and I work triple time to give her all I can, no matter if my own means are constricted.

I don't know about you, but the older I get, the softer my heart gets.

It's like it's ready to cry at every opportunity when you see sad or hurtful things around you.

And I seem to love more.

Not perfectly like Christ, but I certainly do my best to love.

I love all who care for me.

I love all who don't care for me.

Not that I'd want to be around them.

I'm not that evolved yet.

And I tend to laugh a lot, too.

Mostly at myself.

As I get older, all I could feel now is love.

Perhaps that's a sign of wisdom and evolution?

Like, my life hasn't been perfect, I'm not perfect, even as others are not perfect, and yet now, all that matters is that I love people.

I must take the initiative.

Whether they love me back doesn't really even matter.

All that matters is if I'm generating love.

It helps every aspect of my life.

I suppose you can call it my daily spiritual practice.

The virtues of love, patience, kindness, and compassion.

Of course, God's in on it.

He gives me many opportunities to exercise love, for the hardest to love are those who really make life hard for me.

But then I laugh, and the spell is broken.

I laugh because perhaps they're thinking the same way -- that I'm making life hard for them.

Then I roar with laughter.

It's too ridiculous.

Life can be ridiculous.

We can be ridiculous.

I found that when I think this way, balance is achieved in my life.

It's really all about perspective, that much I know.

Love is powerful, you know that.

When I contemplate on the fact that God is Love, I really stop in awe.

Those are the things I focus on each day.

I really chose to do that, for I was humbled by many circumstances and I felt, it was time to grow up and become more sensitive to others, even as there's still a little kid kicking inside my heart.

Some days when I'm commuting or walking, I get impatient and want to "overtake" people, and then I remind myself that, "Hey, slow down. That person in front of you could be your mother. Watch over her. Don't overtake her in that narrow street."

When you think that people walking in front of you on the street could be your mother, your father, your son, your daughter, your brother, your sister, your grandmother, your grandfather -- or whoever means a lot to you -- that makes you kinder and more aware.

For one day, we'll be that person walking on the street, too.

Lucky if we could still walk.

Would others care if they bump us in their haste to get to their destination?

Can our bones handle that?

What if we fall because they bumped us?

Who'd be around to help us?

As you can imagine, my mind goes into a whirl at all the pain such haste or insensitivity on my part can cause another.

And so, when I follow an older person as I walk, tight as our streets are in this developing country of ours, I remind myself to protect that person instead, and not be the first to cause harm upon them.

I become a self-appointed angel.

Try it -- it will surely transform your energies.

Now, you're the one protecting, and not the one being protected.

It's so empowering.

Simple spiritual practices like that really change you.

It makes you more awake and aware, for we're all in this together.

We'll all age.

We'll all pass on.

We'll leave people behind.

For me, the important thing is not so much if people care about me but if I cared enough about others while I had my short stint on Earth.

And perhaps, when I do re-join The Father, He will merely look into my heart and know.

That's assuming I end up with The Father.

What do I really know?

Sometimes, I get too presumptuous.

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