There is a lovely idea in the Celtic tradition that if you send out goodness from yourself, or if you share that which is happy or good within you, it will all come back to you multiplied ten thousand times. In the kingdom of love there is no competition, there is no possessiveness or control. The more love you give away, the more love you will have.
Both Celtic and Indic languages derive from “Proto-Indo-European,” a language reconstructed by the “comparative method of historical linguistics.” It is thought to have originated in the part of the world now known as Ukraine.
Other branches of “PIE” include: Greek, Germanic, Italic, Balto-Slavic, Hittite, Indo-Iranian and Tocharian.
The “proto-language” carried a common culture, which traveled broadly and changed a lot everywhere it went. It is one of the few great linguistic families we know.
Late on Christmas Eve German troops began unwrapping gifts from home, with many having been sent Christmas trees with candles. As the German soldiers lit their lanterns and displayed them on the edge of their trenches, carol singing broke out. Soon enough the British and French troops joined in. Christmas greetings and well wishes were exchanged, and offers of a temporary ceasefire were communicated between the trenches. Fear and distrust gave way to humanity. As the sun rose on Christmas morning, troops from both sides tentatively made their way out to no man’s land. The troops began to greet one another, and messages and gifts were exchanged. What makes the Truce of 1914 so surprising, is that it was not one truce but many. The British-held area of the Western Front stretched across swathes of land, and was home to a huge number of troops. Dozens of impromptu truces sprung up across the front involving over 100,000 soldiers.
Hundreds of millions of years ago single celled organisms “learned” to come together and become multicellular organisms that opened up amazing possibilities that led to the diversity of life and eventually to us. Cooperation and love is powerful and baked into life itself!
in times like these, I am comforted by Madeleine L’Engel’s books. She returns often to the theme of evil. Her characters explain to children that before there was light and order, there was darkness and chaos. Every so often, that darkness and chaos erupt again, as is happening now. It is up to each of us to bring love and order back to the universe.
I’m without a partner right now, so spending Valentine’s Day on my own. That doesn’t mean it’s without love, however. Love for yourself is where it all starts. Sometimes we fail to understand that basic premise. Without it, it’s difficult to either accept love or express it wholeheartedly for others. It’s a shadow of its proper self. Practicing self care is vital, especially while living in the toxic hellscape this country has become. The regime wants us at each other’s throats. Pam Bondi’s reprehensible performance in Congress this week was a perfect example. No meaningful engagement or accountability, just games and deflection.
Barbara, yesterday, I got to be cared for by one of my favorite nurses. That is true love! We talked about her upcoming trip and she promised to bring a picture if where they are vacationing. She's like having the love of a sister close by. Look around your world, you are so loved!
Nurses are truly some of the most caring people. I saw it frequently as my mom was dying of cancer and slipping further away into dementia. Health care workers, from nurses on down, take care of us when our own families can’t. It’s priceless.
I have to ask. I debated endlessly about this. Does the US citizenry even know about Canada’s recent tragedy? The one your President ignored. The one that Canadians are sending their love to this weekend. I know Canada is a “middle” power, I know the US has severe internal issues that require addressing. But Canada has stood by you throughout, but not a word has Canada heard for one of the worst tragedies in Canada in decades. Maybe it’s just my neediness, but in Canada a school shooting is beyond the pale. It’s extraordinary, it gut us
The current POTUS has no receptor sites for other people’s pain, even as he causes more of it. Official silence doesn’t mean that people didn’t see news of what happened and weep with you. It was an eruption of evil. Enfolding you in love and light.
Senseless and so sad as all gun violence is - especially towards children in what should be a safe space. From written reports it seems the Canadian government will do something to stop it. Unlike the United States
Just listened to part of Rubio’s Munich presentation. He excoriated the *fools* who subscribed to ‘The End of History’ - which was *his* gang’s lead product just a few years ago, wasn’t it? Excuse me, but it’s like watching someone punch himself in the face, isn’t it? There is no escape, he says, from Tribalism - nor should there be. It’s ‘human nature’ and we must embrace it and ‘hate all the people your relatives hate’. Why am I listening to this man of zero accomplishment, zero achievement, zero distinction, representing a clown of even less of those? Does he give anyone any confidence that he (or his ‘daddy’) has ever read a book all the way through?
Someone please talk me down. I feel like a character trapped in a Lewis Carroll invention
Love is manifested in so many ways. In Minneapolis, for example, people blew whistles to alert their neighbors that ICE was in the vicinity. That’s a showing of love for our neighbors. In every city in this country there are people who care about the underprivileged who have a low level of income. There are food pantries, clothing give aways, backpacks for school children. All of these are expressions of love. It is definitely more prevalent than the hate spewed by those who are selfish users of resources and don’t care about the people next door.
Those who spread love are much happier people than the haters. Hate breeds misery.
Love and hate are both powerful but in different ways. Love is better for the heart, soul and mind and keeps you happy and committed. Fear and hate keep you in line. My 2 cts
Is love more powerful than hate? Steve, that is a challenge question. I parse it as follows. Love is constructive. Hate is destructive. Love is positive. Hate is negative. Love is compassionate. Hate is unfeeling. (There are many antonyms.) Throughout my life I have puzzled over how easily and quickly hate destroys. Take for example Donald and Melania Trump. They were directly responsible for the destruction of the East Wing of the White House. They destroyed the Rose Garden. He planted his name on The Kennedy Center. Their negativity will have a lasting impact on our country. Take another example: The Twin Towers in New York City. It took years to build those iconic towers and only hours to destroy them. Trump’s reaction as a New Yorker: He now had the tallest buildings in New York City. Sadly, hate becomes the more destructive force. Love as a positive requires much time to build and secure. Hate can destroy in one fell swoop what love (positive force) took a long time to build or create. It is the old story of good versus evil. Love is good. Hate is evil. We are witnessing hate’s dominion over our country. If not stopped, hate will prevail.
Look, Friends…it is exquisitely simple. On its face, love is a CHOICE; love of self and others. Call it trite, but I do adhere to the notion that I can always choose love. In fact, choosing love, albeit sometimes reluctantly, is the only choice that makes sense if we are going to bring all the things into being for which we yearn: justice, peace, respect, compassion and, dare I say…joy? Everyone knows that choosing love must also leave room for righteous anger, but we’re going to have to try to view this world through love-colored glasses if we are to live in harmony with others and the only planet we’ve got. Love sees each and all of us as equal partners in our respective journeys through life. I’ve been married over 50 years and can attest to the fact that I have always loved my husband through good times and times that threatened our relationship.
We have to choose authentic love now more than ever, or, in my opinion, our country and our civilization as we know it won’t survive. Happy Valentine’s Day to all lovers of life out there!
Thank you for this seemingly simple question Steven, and happy anniversary to you and your spouse. ❤️
Although we often bandy about these two words, it is their underlying directions that seem most opposite to me.
Love is to openly throw your optimistic trust out towards other beings and creatures. Hate is to push away, to block and shut out energy and positive flow from gentle and healing life forces.
I choose love even it would at first seem to make us more vulnerable. It has never let me down.
I am most fortunate to be married to the love of my life for over 50 years, and we will also be celebrating that tonight.
But among the things that we now do is one that really feeds our souls in these troubling times. We connected with a local organization that feeds the homeless and their pets. Every Sunday, there is a PopUp Supper in a public location where the folks who are homeless can find donations of clothing, toiletries, tarps, blankets, pet food, etc. as well as a hot meal served by volunteers.
The group is also about to sponsor a second free vaccination clinic for pets of the homeless.
During the week, a group of volunteers also goes through the streets and alleyways to distribute clothing, etc. as well as bags of snacks for the hungry.
The folks who attend the PopUp Suppers are always so grateful. Some will tell us that it is their first meal in days.
It reminds me of a song from when our children were young…about love being something that if you give it away, you end up having more.
I’ve been living this adage for years and it came in especially handy when I worked in Food Service for 25 years, face to face with my customers every day:
Kill ‘em with kindness.
Stare them in the eyes with the most benevolent smile you can muster, showing them you are listening and really care.
Hate is a manifestation of fear, and fear is always overcome by love. This I believe.
What else? Courage is love. Let's save the vote, shall we?
There is a lovely idea in the Celtic tradition that if you send out goodness from yourself, or if you share that which is happy or good within you, it will all come back to you multiplied ten thousand times. In the kingdom of love there is no competition, there is no possessiveness or control. The more love you give away, the more love you will have.
JOHN O'DONOHUE
Excerpt from the book, Anam Cara
The Indic tradition calls this “karma.”
Both Celtic and Indic languages derive from “Proto-Indo-European,” a language reconstructed by the “comparative method of historical linguistics.” It is thought to have originated in the part of the world now known as Ukraine.
Other branches of “PIE” include: Greek, Germanic, Italic, Balto-Slavic, Hittite, Indo-Iranian and Tocharian.
The “proto-language” carried a common culture, which traveled broadly and changed a lot everywhere it went. It is one of the few great linguistic families we know.
Yes.
“Whoever gives nothing, has nothing. The greatest misfortune is not to be unloved, but not to love.” - Albert Camus
WW I Christmas Truce, 1914 https://www.visionofhumanity.org/the-christmas-truce/
Late on Christmas Eve German troops began unwrapping gifts from home, with many having been sent Christmas trees with candles. As the German soldiers lit their lanterns and displayed them on the edge of their trenches, carol singing broke out. Soon enough the British and French troops joined in. Christmas greetings and well wishes were exchanged, and offers of a temporary ceasefire were communicated between the trenches. Fear and distrust gave way to humanity. As the sun rose on Christmas morning, troops from both sides tentatively made their way out to no man’s land. The troops began to greet one another, and messages and gifts were exchanged. What makes the Truce of 1914 so surprising, is that it was not one truce but many. The British-held area of the Western Front stretched across swathes of land, and was home to a huge number of troops. Dozens of impromptu truces sprung up across the front involving over 100,000 soldiers.
The Trump Administration is totally devoid of any Humanity.
How is your post responsive or relevant to my post or to today's theme?
Because it is the truth you don’t want to face.
The fact that you hate yourself and your life does not mean or imply that anyone else feels differently about you or should. Happy Valentine's Day
This is an anecdote I have heard before, but it strikes the same sentiments of joy and wonder I felt the first time I heard it
And as quickly as it started, it ended. With 3 more years of horror, death and bloodshed.
Hundreds of millions of years ago single celled organisms “learned” to come together and become multicellular organisms that opened up amazing possibilities that led to the diversity of life and eventually to us. Cooperation and love is powerful and baked into life itself!
Hundreds of millions of years ago single celled organisms “learned” to come together and become multicellular organisms for “Evil”.
Today they are called “Trump MAGA”.
in times like these, I am comforted by Madeleine L’Engel’s books. She returns often to the theme of evil. Her characters explain to children that before there was light and order, there was darkness and chaos. Every so often, that darkness and chaos erupt again, as is happening now. It is up to each of us to bring love and order back to the universe.
I’m without a partner right now, so spending Valentine’s Day on my own. That doesn’t mean it’s without love, however. Love for yourself is where it all starts. Sometimes we fail to understand that basic premise. Without it, it’s difficult to either accept love or express it wholeheartedly for others. It’s a shadow of its proper self. Practicing self care is vital, especially while living in the toxic hellscape this country has become. The regime wants us at each other’s throats. Pam Bondi’s reprehensible performance in Congress this week was a perfect example. No meaningful engagement or accountability, just games and deflection.
Barbara, yesterday, I got to be cared for by one of my favorite nurses. That is true love! We talked about her upcoming trip and she promised to bring a picture if where they are vacationing. She's like having the love of a sister close by. Look around your world, you are so loved!
Nurses are truly some of the most caring people. I saw it frequently as my mom was dying of cancer and slipping further away into dementia. Health care workers, from nurses on down, take care of us when our own families can’t. It’s priceless.
I have to ask. I debated endlessly about this. Does the US citizenry even know about Canada’s recent tragedy? The one your President ignored. The one that Canadians are sending their love to this weekend. I know Canada is a “middle” power, I know the US has severe internal issues that require addressing. But Canada has stood by you throughout, but not a word has Canada heard for one of the worst tragedies in Canada in decades. Maybe it’s just my neediness, but in Canada a school shooting is beyond the pale. It’s extraordinary, it gut us
It’s extraordinary to me how many times my heart can break and then miraculously become whole again and that is through love and sending compassion.
Yes, we did hear about it. I’m so sorry. I hope the worst of America is not spreading up to Canada. Please stay strong.🙏😔
The current POTUS has no receptor sites for other people’s pain, even as he causes more of it. Official silence doesn’t mean that people didn’t see news of what happened and weep with you. It was an eruption of evil. Enfolding you in love and light.
Senseless and so sad as all gun violence is - especially towards children in what should be a safe space. From written reports it seems the Canadian government will do something to stop it. Unlike the United States
I did read about it and my heart breaks for this tragedy. People here in the US are seeing it and feeling the impact.
I think that the people of Minnesota have just demonstrated the truth of this belief that love is stronger than hate
Just listened to part of Rubio’s Munich presentation. He excoriated the *fools* who subscribed to ‘The End of History’ - which was *his* gang’s lead product just a few years ago, wasn’t it? Excuse me, but it’s like watching someone punch himself in the face, isn’t it? There is no escape, he says, from Tribalism - nor should there be. It’s ‘human nature’ and we must embrace it and ‘hate all the people your relatives hate’. Why am I listening to this man of zero accomplishment, zero achievement, zero distinction, representing a clown of even less of those? Does he give anyone any confidence that he (or his ‘daddy’) has ever read a book all the way through?
Someone please talk me down. I feel like a character trapped in a Lewis Carroll invention
Love is manifested in so many ways. In Minneapolis, for example, people blew whistles to alert their neighbors that ICE was in the vicinity. That’s a showing of love for our neighbors. In every city in this country there are people who care about the underprivileged who have a low level of income. There are food pantries, clothing give aways, backpacks for school children. All of these are expressions of love. It is definitely more prevalent than the hate spewed by those who are selfish users of resources and don’t care about the people next door.
Those who spread love are much happier people than the haters. Hate breeds misery.
Love and hate are both powerful but in different ways. Love is better for the heart, soul and mind and keeps you happy and committed. Fear and hate keep you in line. My 2 cts
Is love more powerful than hate? Steve, that is a challenge question. I parse it as follows. Love is constructive. Hate is destructive. Love is positive. Hate is negative. Love is compassionate. Hate is unfeeling. (There are many antonyms.) Throughout my life I have puzzled over how easily and quickly hate destroys. Take for example Donald and Melania Trump. They were directly responsible for the destruction of the East Wing of the White House. They destroyed the Rose Garden. He planted his name on The Kennedy Center. Their negativity will have a lasting impact on our country. Take another example: The Twin Towers in New York City. It took years to build those iconic towers and only hours to destroy them. Trump’s reaction as a New Yorker: He now had the tallest buildings in New York City. Sadly, hate becomes the more destructive force. Love as a positive requires much time to build and secure. Hate can destroy in one fell swoop what love (positive force) took a long time to build or create. It is the old story of good versus evil. Love is good. Hate is evil. We are witnessing hate’s dominion over our country. If not stopped, hate will prevail.
Look, Friends…it is exquisitely simple. On its face, love is a CHOICE; love of self and others. Call it trite, but I do adhere to the notion that I can always choose love. In fact, choosing love, albeit sometimes reluctantly, is the only choice that makes sense if we are going to bring all the things into being for which we yearn: justice, peace, respect, compassion and, dare I say…joy? Everyone knows that choosing love must also leave room for righteous anger, but we’re going to have to try to view this world through love-colored glasses if we are to live in harmony with others and the only planet we’ve got. Love sees each and all of us as equal partners in our respective journeys through life. I’ve been married over 50 years and can attest to the fact that I have always loved my husband through good times and times that threatened our relationship.
We have to choose authentic love now more than ever, or, in my opinion, our country and our civilization as we know it won’t survive. Happy Valentine’s Day to all lovers of life out there!
"And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love, you make."
-The Beatles
Thank you for this seemingly simple question Steven, and happy anniversary to you and your spouse. ❤️
Although we often bandy about these two words, it is their underlying directions that seem most opposite to me.
Love is to openly throw your optimistic trust out towards other beings and creatures. Hate is to push away, to block and shut out energy and positive flow from gentle and healing life forces.
I choose love even it would at first seem to make us more vulnerable. It has never let me down.
I am most fortunate to be married to the love of my life for over 50 years, and we will also be celebrating that tonight.
But among the things that we now do is one that really feeds our souls in these troubling times. We connected with a local organization that feeds the homeless and their pets. Every Sunday, there is a PopUp Supper in a public location where the folks who are homeless can find donations of clothing, toiletries, tarps, blankets, pet food, etc. as well as a hot meal served by volunteers.
The group is also about to sponsor a second free vaccination clinic for pets of the homeless.
During the week, a group of volunteers also goes through the streets and alleyways to distribute clothing, etc. as well as bags of snacks for the hungry.
The folks who attend the PopUp Suppers are always so grateful. Some will tell us that it is their first meal in days.
It reminds me of a song from when our children were young…about love being something that if you give it away, you end up having more.
I’ve been living this adage for years and it came in especially handy when I worked in Food Service for 25 years, face to face with my customers every day:
Kill ‘em with kindness.
Stare them in the eyes with the most benevolent smile you can muster, showing them you are listening and really care.
It can be a contagious diffuse mechanism 😁🙃