by Mila 'Sam' Reyes-Garcia
Board member and Human Resources Committee chair, SanibLakas Foundation; and member LightShare e-Mail List Group and Sanib-lakas ng Inang Kalikasan
PLANTS.BLOOM.when.touched.lovingly. Rosebuds blossom beautifully. Babies gurgle and coo. Cats purr, and dogs wag happy tails. The magic wand is LOVE.
..........The world today is wearing the gloomiest look and groaning ever more mournfully by the day. It is time to sound the call for all of us Earth people to wield our magic wands of love and help our planet put on a happy face.
Let’s take time to seriously work at caring for one another, not despite the rat race, the struggles and the hunger, but precisely because of them.
If we all tried earnestly to love and then live within the law of love, there would be no poverty, no wars. Why?
..........To love means to be concerned about the welfare of others. And, being concerned about the welfare of others, one will want to protect, instead of maim or rape or kill, his fellowmen. Lead- ers and officials of rich nations will want to help pull up, instead of conquer or trample on and exploit, the suffering Third World countries.
Mila 'Sam' R. Garcia......
With loving automatically comes sharing. Caring employers will share profits with their employees, the rich will not hoard, the hacienderos will share their bounty with the farmers, on and on into an unending wave of love. There will be more givers in this world. And when we all start giving more, we will, with much joy, discover that there is enough of everything for everybody to go around. There will be food on every dining table, no one need ever go hungry. Caring for one another, and with it the natural desire to share, is the secret formula against poverty. Without poverty, tempers will quiet down, and violence will not thrive.
Are we making it sound all too simple? It is simple. The root of the world’s suffering is the lack of love among us.
There is so much bitterness, pessimism, envy, loneliness, greed and all kinds of negative attitudes and feelings all around the globe, and these have solidified into one collective dark cloud of gloom and doom which is making the planet and all its residents very ill. This is the worst pollution of all, this monstrous cloud of anger, greed, tension and despair, which clearly stems from our lack of a genuine love for each other as brothers and sisters in the human race.
..........We do not and can not expect to rectify this overnight, but we have to start somewhere. Let’s start working on ourselves now, slowly, day by day. For starters, let’s look around us, take a long, hard look at the people we may have unconsciously ignored all these years --the people in our neighborhood (the mailman, the street sweeper, the garbage collector), in our workplace (the janitor, the elevator man, the messenger boy)-- and make an effort to be fully aware that each one of them is a living, breathing human being with feelings and needs just like ours. As we develop this awareness, we can then treat people as people, not as mere machines doing things for us.
When we meet the mailman, who may have been plying our route for years, let’s not just stare straight ahead, looking through him. Let’s smile and give him a short greeting. This little gesture, acknowledging his presence as a co-person, can put a spring to his step and lighten the load on his back for many blocks. On days when he delivers letters at our gate and we see how tired and sweaty he is from all that walking, let’s offer him a glass of cold water or juice to quench his thirst..
We can do the same for the garbage collector and the street sweeper. Such a simple thing as a cold drink can help a lot to ease the fatigue of these human beings who work long hours under the sun to sweep our dirt away. If, from our window, we see the street sweeper massaging her brow, let’s go out and ask if she needs a pain reliever.
Let’s smile and look at the elevator man when we say thank you, instead of just breezing in and out of the elevator as though he weren’t there, as though he were part of the elevator, as though he were a non-person. Let’s give a warm good morning to our office janitor and call out his name, and always thank the messenger boy heartily for whatever he delivers to us or for us. During slack hours, rare as these may be, let’s have little chats with them, ask about their families, their dreams, whatever. By getting to know them more as persons, as human beings, we get to know some of their needs and get to know ourselves in them..
..........And maybe one day, when we have a little extra money to spare, we can get a bottle or two of that medicine the messenger boy needs for his mother’s chronic ailment. On yet another day, we can buy that raincoat the janitor can’t buy for his son who walks to school in the rain, or a set of pencils and crayons for his little girl who loves to draw.
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........Touched by our thoughtful attention, their work will feel much lighter. They will feel a warmth in their hearts, feel there is more hope for a better future, go home in a happier mood, be nicer and more loving to their families. The members of their families, in turn, will go out of their homes more cheerfully, will be more tolerant of other people’s shortcomings, will be able to hurdle obstacles with a more positive attitude and, therefore, be able to accomplish more..
........We have tackled these examples in detail if only to stress the point that there is no need for grandiose plans or heroic deeds on a grand scale for us to qualify as caring persons. We can learn to care and express this caring through very simple ways in our daily lives. We only need to be more aware of, and more sensitive to, each other’s needs and try to help in whatever way we can, whenever we can.
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........Someone in our circle may be going through a heartbreak, a terrible sorrow. Someone may be feeling a deep loneliness. Let’s give of our time, of our selves, to express compassion and empathy. A little tenderness here, a little gentleness there. A kind word here, an encouraging smile there. A pat on the back, a warm clasp of the hand, an arm around the shoulder. Love is a soothing light that can gently illuminate a darkened mind, that can warm the coldest heart. Let’s use it everyday. It’s magic!
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........Let’s start training ourselves. Let’s really try, with all our might, to care for each other as brothers and sisters and to share of what we have more, with those who have less.
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........Call me naive, and maybe I am. But humor my naivete, if you please, and give it a try. See the joyful difference it will make in your life, in the lives of those around you, in the lives of those around them, ad infinitum. Then see a happier, brighter world lit up with LOVE!
Let’s start today!
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