Love

Do You Know Your Neighbor?

/ doubledacres / Leave a comment

“I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor.  Do you know your next door neighbor?” – Mother Teresa

I grew up in the 1960s during the  Vietnam War, the British invasion of the Beatles, the assassination of John F Kennedy and when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr made his “I Have A Dream” speech, as well as his assassination.  I also saw man walk on the moon.

It was also the time when young people began to revolt against conservative norms of the time and removed themselves from mainstream liberalism.  A new “counterculture” was born.  The participants in this new movement were known as “hippies”.

“To love our neighbor as ourselves is such a truth for regulating human society, that by that alone one might determine all the cases in social morality.” – John Locke

How many of you remember the “Hippie”?  Rejected established institutions, criticized the values of the middle class,  the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons were a huge “no no”, championed sexual liberation, were often vegetarians, and promoted the use of psychedelic drugs.  Peace, love and drugs.

There was a lot of love to go around in this group.  Often times living in  communes.  ridiculed and despised by most of America.  Peace!  Love!  I think for the most part people were afraid of them because they didn’t understand them.  This is purely my opinion and I have no facts to back it up.  One thing for sure is that today’s society could use some of the love they were trying to spread around.

Love thy neighbor!  How can you love your neighbor if you don’t know them?  Why don’t we know our neighbors?   Are we too busy?  We don’t care?  Trust issues?  I remember when everyone in the neighborhood knew each other and when someone was in need the others were there.  Neighbors cared about each other and were like one big family.  I can’t remember where it all changed.  Maybe it changed so slowly I just missed it but how I wish those days would return.   Neighbors looked out for each other and their property.

I hope one day America can return to those days.  It is still alive and enjoyed by much of rural America.  Hopefully some day it will catch on in urban America and take root in the cities.  Personally I think society could benefit from everyone loving their neighbor like they love themselves.

Thanks for reading.  I hope you enjoyed it and if you did then please hit the like button.  Love thy neighbor, be kind to one another and spread the love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is it that we are afraid of them because we don’t understand them

 

 

 

 

 

Love

/ doubledacres / Leave a comment
dscn0237

Bourbeuse River near Union, MO

“When you look into your mother’s eyes. you know that is the purest love you can find on this earth.” -Mitch Albom, For One More Day

Today I came across  a post that said,”If you could get rid of one thing in the world what would it be?”.  There were answers like hate, greed, corruption, etc..  I sat and did some thinking about this and I came to the conclusion that it was the wrong question.  The appropriate question would be, “What would you do to change the world?”.  I would teach the world to love unconditionally.  Why you say?  If we were able to love unconditionally there would be no hate, corruption, greed etc..  Those things could not survive in a world that truly loved unconditionally.  If a person’s heart was that full of love hate couldn’t survive.

Unconditional love in its simplest form means appreciating someone else for who they truly are.  It means loving  them when they are unlovable, and in spite of their imperfections and mistakes.  At a deeper level, it means never, ever questioning whether you’ll feel any other way toward a person.  You’ll never judge them and you will accept them for who they are.  It means loving someone regardless of their race, religion, nationality and their handicaps.

“To love everyone unconditionally does not mean to give everyone your unconditional time.  Sometimes, to love completely,  we must never see someone again.  This too is love.  This is giving someone the freedom to exist and be happy, even if it must be without you.” – Veronika Tugaleva

I am a firm believer to take someone’s life, one’s heart must be full of hate.  A lot of times it is blamed on child abuse during one’s childhood.  That abuse fueled hate and filled that person’s heart to the point they had no regard for another person’s life and they were willing to take that person’s life without hesitation.  If that individual would have been loved like a child should be, in all probability they would have never taken another person’s life.

If unconditional love ruled the world there wouldn’t be people living on the streets, crime wouldn’t exist, there wouldn’t be any corruption in our police departments or government.  Unconditional love would trump the cause of all these negative things. Our children would know what respect is.  It would end hunger.  Wars would be non-existent.

I am a realist however and know this Utopia, so to speak, is more my imagination than a reality.  A great idea and pleasant thought.  Wouldn’t it be great to wake up some morning to a world like this though?

“We are the world, we are the children.   We are the ones who make a brighter day so lets start giving.  There’s a choice we’re making, we’re saving our own lives, its true we’ll make a better day just you and me.” – We Are The World USA For Africa

I thank you for taking the time to read my blog.  I guess it would fit into a fantasy category.  In my heart I think it is a beautiful thought.  Be kind to one another, share the love and don’t squat with your spurs on.

 

 

Anger: the Negative Emotion

/ doubledacres / Leave a comment

“Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended.  But what you’re doing when you indulge these negative emotions is giving something outside yourself power over your happiness.  You can choose to not let little things upset you.” – Joel Osteen

How many times a day do you get angry, stressed or offended?  Three times?  Five times? More than that?  You are running late and aggravated.   You walk into the kitchen for a quick breakfast and find the toast burned, the eggs are cold and the hash browns need the oil changed in them.  You are running late and you have an important meeting first thing.  You finally get in the car and fire it up only to find it a hair above empty.  Your husband took it to the baseball meeting and forgot to put gas in it.  How would you handle it or react to it?  How you handle these moments will pretty much dictate what kind of day you have.

I don’t know if Americans aren’t getting enough R&R or if they are just mad at the world. From public schools to the streets of the big cities it seems that more and more people are turning to fighting at an alarming rate.  Social media is filled with videos of fights between a couple of people to a whole neighborhood.   Is there an imbalance between love and hate or has love left the building completely?  It is something that we really need to look at because it is accelerating at an alarming rate.

A good start is to evaluate ourselves.  Do you get angry over burnt toast or does it take a lot to make you angry?   If it is the first one then perhaps you should seek out a counselor to help you deal with this.  If your anger is that easy to bring about then I just can’t imagine you ever having a good day.  Take that first step and seek out someone to help you tame this anger.  You will be glad you did.

All negative emotions are detrimental to one’s happiness  therefore we have to learn to control them and not let them control us.  Be positive and take control of your life and cleanse yourself of the negative baggage that you carry around with you.  Let us all try to bring some joy and kindness to the world.

I want to thank you for taking the time to read my blog and if you have a short temper I hope you seek help and address the problem.  Be kind to one another, share the love and God Bless you one and all.  Don’t squat with your spurs on.

 

Love and Compassion

/ doubledacres / Leave a comment

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.  Without them humanity cannot survive.”  – Dalai Lama

As I lay here listening to the hum of the fan in the window and the little peepers off in the distance serenading the night, my mind wanders back to the teen age years of my life.   It was a simple time.  Life was good.

School was much different because the parents didn’t blame the teacher for little Johnny’s behavior or grades.  The responsibility was placed squarely on the shoulders of little Johnny and he didn’t get a trophy unless he earned it.  “Earned it.”  Isn’t that quite a concept?  When did it all change?  For the life of me I can’t remember.  Why?  I was told one time by a child psychologist that it was done out of compassion for the losers.  Really?

Unlike today, kids could stay out past dark and not have to worry.  They could walk down to the local grocery and buy a gallon of milk and walk home without having to worry about being abducted.  Don’t get me wrong.  It wasn’t a perfect world but there seemed to be a lot less crime then.  The real question is why?  Was it due to the way the news was reported or was there more love and compassion then?

From my personal experience I believe it was the latter.  People had more respect for life then.  Folks helped one another then instead of turning a cold shoulder and walking away.  They shared food, clothes or whatever they could.  Not everybody did but the majority of the people I knew did.

“Being loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” – Lao Tzu

Something that I don’t see too much of these days is respect.  I am blown away by the way children talk to their parents.  They use words that they shouldn’t even have in their vocabulary.  Words that would make a sailor blush I tells ya.  See a lot more tantrums being thrown in the stores when the child doesn’t get what he/she wants.  This usually results in the child getting what he/she wants.  Sooooo is he/she going to throw a tantrum when they don’t get their way in the work force?

“The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.” – Albert Schweitzer

Compassion according to Merriam Webster: sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.  I am of the opinion that “true” compassion is hard to find in today’s society.  What about the donations that went out to the 9/11 victims you say?  Really?  Myself I really don’t think of that as compassion.  I felt it was more people expressing their patriotism than anything else.

Maybe I just expect too much out of people.  Maybe I am still caught up in the simplicity of life in the 60s and 70s.  I still have the vision of our family dinners where we actually talked to one another and asked how our day had been.  Compassion and love were abundant.  The world wasn’t perfect back then but it was far closer to perfection than it is now.  Maybe new technology was the trade off.  “Pappa tell me ’bout the good ole days.

Well thank you for taking the time to read my blog.  I hope you enjoyed it.   Love one another and remember the feeling of compassion and don’t be afraid to show it.

Don’t squat with your spurs, be kind to one another and share the love.  God bless you one and all.

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