My ragpicking hippie thoughts
I am not going to look up the dictionary meaning of love because that is something each of you can do. For me to describe the nature of love as I view it the answer must come from within. Love to me is more about appreciation for life. It begins with the ability for me to respect the fact that each person alive has God given rights. Every day I must remind myself that the world does not revolve around my little sphere of influence. As my cerebral self absorbs that fact I allow myself to respect who I am not who others want me to be. That gives me the ability to love me so as to love others. I do not see love as being that giddy, heart fluttering, novel romance, over the top funky feeling that all to often is the description ingrained in our heads. I see love simply as being one in body and spirit. Total unity with who I am gives me what it takes to see past the shortcomings we try to point out in others.
As for peace I see it as a verb an action word that is and always will be a work in process. Peace is something we likely never fully attain due to our concupiscence. We are human with all the faculties, thoughts, emotions, and actions that go along with that. Peace is understanding that we have to respect our humanity so much so that we never step on the toes of others. We build up not tear down. War, bitterness, bigotry, discrimination, profiling all of this can never bring you to an appreciation for peace. Peace is never a result of war or fighting. It may be a cruel compromise by the stronger but it will never be the deep result. I believe in order to attain peace we have to understand love. Peace a place of higher being that will without a doubt give you an appreciation for life you never knew existed. The pursuit of peace is a wonderful thing.
Acceptance is probably the one attribute I work on the most. I now find our human differences fascinating. There was a time that I accepted only that which religion taught until I realized that religion itself divided what I believe to be the Body of Christ. No two people were created alike. We all have born characteristics that will be with us for our entire life. Those traits or characteristics were not something we chose they were something we were given. For the rest of us to discriminate or not accept that in my opinion is a violation of our love for God and self. Look at me, I did not chose to be a white male, I sure did not chose to grow up to be bald, nor did I check the box to have dark brown eyes. I believe for us to have peace and love in the this world we must accept that God created us different so that we could come together to be one. Yes that means we accept with full love skin color, sexual orientation, ethnicity, etc. If we respect God we have to respect that which he created.
Forgiveness is without a doubt the toughest of the four. It is an easy word to say yet a hard action to perform. Forgiveness is all about accepting that we hurt others just as we get hurt. We sin against our neighbor as they sin against us. Forgiveness is about allowing God to heal that which we cannot understand. It also has to start with accepting your own shortcomings and seeking to improve. We are always in need of reform and as long as we stay on the reformation journey forgiveness becomes a tolerable act. When you arrive at the point of true forgiveness there is no question that you have arrived at love. You cannot force forgiveness of others so you have to focus on the act of forgiving. This is where our unity with God is paramount. Without having a relationship with God you simply cannot fully find and extend forgiveness.
Put it all together and you have a formula for the human soul. This does not come easy learning to love, accept, and forgive but when you work at it daily in everything you do peace will expand in you. Do not seek perfection simply seek humanity. It is you that has to start the journey to find the self that has been dormant for so many years. In man's search for meaning we never find that which we seek until we find the love for self God placed in our heart from birth.
There you have a composite of thoughts from a ragpicking hippie sitting at the computer ready to go out and love life today.
peace to you
Dale
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