My dear friends, let us love one another, since love is from God and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.

Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love.

This is the revelation of God’s love for us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him.

Love consists in this: it is not we who loved God, but God loved us and sent his Son to expiate our sins “- John 4:7-10

Today I listened to this words and we had a discussion with some friends, on theological- philosophical meanings of Life and Love on Earth. What does it mean to Love someone? How much Love can we give? How many kinds of Love are there?

There are many symbols of love, of giving, of showing love. It all depends on two important variables: what the giver of love wants the receiver to feel, and how the receiver feels about this love transmission. More to it, how the receiver makes the giver understand that this love is wanted, or rather, that the type of love that the receiver wants is another one, not contemplated by the giver.

Frida Kahlo, Mexican revolutionary artist who painted
many portraits, self-portraits and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico, mixing reality with fantasy (c) https://i.pinimg.com

It seems planned, but it is a natural expression of human feelings. If, for instance, the receiver does not know what type of love he/she wants, it is likely that he/she is going to accept everything/or refusing everything that he/she does not understand or has not experienced.

On the other hand, the giver of love (givers and receivers are all, under different situations and circumstances we all become so) cannot give- indistinctly to all and in equal measure- love (in all its shapes and forms) to the receiver. The receiver will be overloaded, swamped and overwhelmed. He/she will not take it.

Love needs Time

Once the relationship giver-receiver is clear and sorted, it all starts from us. Once we know when and how to say Yes and No, and we know exactly what we wish, we are able to be open for love and able to love and be loved, to give and to receive.

Love Declaration in Portuguese-English (each one learning the other’s language) – this can be a sign of love, wanting to enter into the other person’s world and surprising him/her- movie (c) Love Actually

One of the social issues nowadays is to be in a relationship: why exactly? why do we desperately want to be with someone? To eat and to sleep together? To fill in the void of our time after work? To let it become a routine, so that afterwards we do not even know why we care about someone? Love is too precious to be thrown in the garbage bin.

Needless to say we need Courage

As we said before, Love can take many shapes and forms. It also depends on the cultural background. With my friends we call it “Contextualized Love” (according to the geographical location and the socio-cultural context you are in). Love can be preparing a good meal for someone. It can be saying caring and affectionate words. It can be listening and actively engaging in discussions. It can be helping someone. Love is a feeling, an idea, but it needs to be put into Action and Words to materialize. It is a courageous act, since it implies that we are here on Earth to share deeper situations, and not only thinking romantically and superficially about Love. It is deeper, it is understanding, it is knowing what the other person wants and wanting the other person to feel fulfilled and complete.

Shifting minds towards Compassionate Love

Love is Action. The word of God above is the action of God giving us his Son, who is sacrificing for us on our terrestrial world to wash away our sins and witness the physical presence of the immense power of faith and believing in someone who is higher and who is showing us the Way, the True Love, the Truth, through His examples. Compassionate Love is the one we give to others, with kindness, the love for other. Compassionate Love is an open and receptive response from the heart, extensively towards other people.

Love is an experiment, it must be experienced

As per many life examples, love must be experienced as well, to feel the joy and the pain, to understand what we like and what we want, so that the giver can also satisfy and fulfill us to the fullest. It is a leap of faith indeed, but love can change, and people can change, therefore feelings can be gradually shifted, and love can become friendship, without hurting anyone.

It is you that you love traveling? I knew it.

A view from Madagascar, (c) https://www.instagram.com/df_fashionstyle/

As we enjoy traveling so much nowadays, we must sense and taste the pleasure of caring about someone. It can be friends, but also more than friends, and we should be able to dedicate some quality time to understand if the person is the correct one for us. It takes time, but in the process we should not get away from who we are, losing ourselves in the needs of the other person, forgetting what we want.

It the experiment is correct, we end up staying together. If not, we move on and we overcome our fears and we change. Change is inevitable to flow naturally and peacefully on the planet. If we are focused, we can achieve many things. If we hold the feelings of love and affection in our hearts, we can give and receive. We need to balance our emotions, not for them to surpass our ability to reflect upon the happenings. Instead, using our minds to dialogue, ask the correct questions and understand ourselves, each day, we can reach a true and divine love. Divine means that God ( or an higher force) manifested  himself through the person in front of us. And that this person wishes to be in our lives as long as we inhabit planet Earth.

One of the best advices in Life, according to me (c) https://i.pinimg.com/

As my Love towards all the Thrive community, I am sharing some songs which I truly like, for you to listen and dream:

Fighter– Christina Aguilera

Chasing the Sun– The Wanted

Love someone– Lukas Graham

Il coraggio di andare (the courage to move forward- Italian)- Laura Pausini feat. Biagio Antonacci

Ciao!

@GaiaParadiso