“Our love towards other people is measured by the extent we are willing to sacrifice ourselves”. There is no better time than Easter Day to remember this thought. This may seem like the outdated view on one of the most important aspects of our lives. The fifth element. The most fulfilling emotion there is. The creative power. Is it truly so? How do we measure love and what do we do to earn it?
Sacrificing for love has become a rare thing. Trying to find a middle ground is a completely different story. We cannot overlook the fact that we live in a consumerist society that pushes the boundaries of our inner worlds. We adapt to the trends of striving for more money, better standards, more expensive things, but we are rarely willing to give it all up in order to experience the immense love, the one that changes our worlds and makes us better people.
This hypothesis brings us to another issue: what constitutes such type of love? Modern society lives by the rules imposed by the media. Romantic love has become the ultimate goal. Romance is an extraordinary thing, but it appears it is not enough to keep us together, speaking long terms. Love which has the power to endure should be based on mutual understanding and giving. Once we know we share the same values and look in the same direction, we know we will endure. Romance is there to spice things up, to enable us to be playful, to give us wings.
Furthermore, there are many other kinds of love, apart from the romantic one. If we talk about the parental love, for example, patience is the thing we should provide in galore. The love of a child toward parents, or love among siblings and friends is the kind of love which should be bursting with forgiveness and understanding. Can patience, forgiveness and understanding be considered a sacrifice? Maybe, speaking from our contemporary standpoint. However, the sacrificing which entails giving it all up for love, had much deeper meaning – to surrender everything for higher good. To be honest, it is an ideal which is extremely difficult to reach. We are all human. We love ourselves, while trying to be kind to other people.
The purpose of this text is to make us all rethink our capacity to give and to understand that we all share destinies and that only if we effuse the willingness to give and increase the intensity of the offering, the same intense, fulfilling, gratifying love will come our way.
Happy Easter to all who celebrate!
