When you are in love, everything looks good. All simple
things will seem to have many layers hidden beneath and you will have fun
peeling those layers. You will look for beauty in everything. You feel
connected with the bigger network of what you can’t see but feel. You can be in
love with yourself, or a person, or a thing, or an idea even. It is all the
same.
Love is a positive feeling. It grows and nurtures the mind
that loves. The one who loves himself is happy, content and at peace with
everything that surrounds him. He understands people around him and behaves in
a way in which he does not hurt them knowingly.
In the journey of life, each of us wear different hats –
play different roles. Our capability to love is tried and tested
at every step. It is easy to lose sight, react to situations and unknowingly
behave in a way which masks our capability to act with love. It takes conscious
training to put love first.
This emotion which we humans are capable of is such a gift –
the default emotion which we have as children sadly outgrowing as we grow up.
Rules about what is good and bad, what is correct and wrong, notions about the
right way to grow up, to live life, definitions of success, failure – all together
imbibed into a growing child’s psyche somewhere diminishes the ability to love –
to accept without judgment, to think freely, to be creative. Barriers are already built by the time the child grows.
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
― Rumi
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
― Rumi
When the child grows and hopefully rediscovers love, a lot
of time is lost, lot of decisions taken, lot of actions performed – the adult
might feel let down. A new process then starts to rebuild what is lost.
Among all the stuff written about parenting, one thing which
I feel is of utmost importance is to ensure that the child’s ability to love
and to be happy remains untouched. If every child is brought up this way,
imagine the world we will have.
How to do this? Well, it is a journey of discovery for the
parents too – albeit with the big picture in mind! It is tough but it is worth
it, isn’t it?
On that note, here’s Calvin with his big picture ;-)
If you had to name one discovery in this parenting journey of yours - to not surround the kids with the barriers that we and this society is trying to build around them... What would it be?
ReplyDeleteOne discovery - It has to be the amount of unlearning I had to do to stop being judgmental. Only if as a parent I stop judging good and bad will I be able to successfully walk the talk. So yes, it has to be this!
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