Real love, the kind that does not demand return or reciprocation or recompense, the kind that comes of putting others before yourself in even just the smallest matters, this love will ring through time. This love will be the saving of mankind. This is the love you received all unknowing from your parents when you were small – although theirs was a very big kind of this love. It is the love that strangers show each other, which is called common courtesy and which is not always so common. It might be a small love, but it is far-reaching. It might not grow into a mighty volcano of feeling, but it can provide a warmth that long outlasts any physical effects from which it derives.
This is the love that comes from simple, easy, mindfulness. Mindfulness of the wants and needs of others; mindfulness of your own needs and abilities; mindfulness of the absolute commonality of the human condition. It is easy to show love when you are mindful of these things, when you are mindful that we all of us need the same things in life. And this love is true, because it is unconditional even if it is “small.” Love in this way and you become part of the chain of human history, part of the best expression of all of us who ever lived and ever will live. This love, which you show, is part of eternity. You become part of eternity. The best part of you becomes eternal.
So get out there, and love. Be kind. Be uncommonly courteous. Become eternal. Take the love that you have been given, however small, and pass it on to those who need it.
And we all need it.
