February, the month of love!
Celebrated with red hearts, balloons, roses, candles, gifts, teddy bear and what not. As years pass by, I find it unbearable to see the fakeness in the extravaganza. The charm of youth played with my heart too, and there was a time when I was disappointed with the inhibitions of my family and loved ones, or not choosing to openly show the love hidden deep in our hearts. Now the interests have changed though.
The love towards the materials has reduced considerably (at least that is what I like to believe!), though there are essentials, for which we choose the best (iPhone, Oneplus etc. You get the drift? ;-)). I now realise the value of the experiences more, say the short trips to the outskirts, vacations we take, or the family moments spent at home on weekends, which doesn’t need much expenses or arrangements to show off to others. The clothes, jewellery or the home decor items are bought now not for tradition or flowing with the rat race, but to adorn our house walls and bodies, so that to multiply the self love when we see ourselves in the mirror or to boost our self morale and confidence . More than a candle light dinner and roses, wishes or public PDA, have you noted the increase in your happiness when they understand your silence, weaknesses and do something to add to your daily dose of happiness, in everyday routines?
Along with the love toward an other person, self love is gaining so much popularity these days. The keywords like mental health, depression, anxiety are quite common that I wonder the essence of uplifting the issue would get drowned amidst the generalisation by the millennial. Though the good thing that came out of it is the self-love quotes and messages flying around reinforcing us to look into ourselves. Words are quoted from the religious texts and books, to the extent that one-liners are made out of nothing, and called as a philosophical quote! Hope the smarter people get into touch with themselves aligning with the intention of the source of these messages.
Also, apart from the default cliched romantic love, I feel other types of love are so underrated. The platonic love between friends, be it any gender, or the sister residing in a different city, or the parental love which you rarely reciprocate especially if you are from the previous generation, or towards the brotherly affectionate mentor at your work, or the online human beings who are part of your daily life giving you momentary happiness, albeit fleetingly. I am still reeling under the influence of reading the book, “Forty Rules of Love“, about Rumi and Shams of Tabriz who loved each other to grow spiritually together. Also the recent “Radhakrishn” TV show depicting examples of universal love, without bounding each other through marriage, and spreading love irrespective of person.
From a mere romantic notion of love depicted in books and films, I see love in a different light in the form of compassion towards the people in our lives. The more you spread love, it becomes easy to disregard the misgivings by others. Not that expectations are low anymore, but the disappointment in not fulfilling the expectations have come low. You chose to forgive others easily, though yet hard to forget, but that’s still one step better than having hatred in the heart. “Letting go” is in trend so as to heal the heart, and is beneficial too.
Recently, at an NGO centre nearby, where the inmates are awaiting death, I came to know that the value of life has reduced merely to being a money giver, either in the form of giving out wills on deathbed or being a part of selfie promotions to earn CSR volunteering points in their career graph! Death indeed gives us a huge reality check when we see it near us.
Hasn’t your love too changed over the years!? That should be the real #10yearchallenge we should be undertaking. Introspecting ourselves over the years, and replenishing ourselves with a new set of values to live by.
