Everybody loves a train wreck: Our eyes are irresistibly drawn to violence and suffering; and the grander the catastrophe, the better the ratings. But take a moment with what's left of this Valentine's Day to reflect on how love has brought healing or at least solice to someone you care deeply about.
In our household, one of our cats has been living with terminal cancer for about two years. Chop Chop's heart is too weak to risk medical intervention. She has continued to thrive on nothing more than our love and a steady diet of Fancy Feast, which is the only food she'll eat on a consistent basis.
Still don't believe? Here's what some pretty smart people have to say about the transformative power of love:
Mahatma Ghandi: “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it -- always.”
Martin Luther King Jr.: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
Albert Einstein: “Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”
Bob Marley: "You open your heart knowing that there’s a chance it may be broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love and joy that you never dreamed possible. You find that being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure that’s so real it scares you. You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end. Life seems completely different, exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in knowing that they are a part of your life.”
Jesus: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth... Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy... Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."
Lao Tzu: “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
Robert Heinlein: “Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
J.K. Rowling: “You're the one who is weak. You will never know love or friendship. And I feel sorry for you.”
Mother Teresa: “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”
John Lennon: “There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”
Plato: “Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.”
Bertrand Russell: “Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.”
Victor Hugo: “What Is love? I have met in the streets a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, the water passed through his shoes and the stars through his soul.”
Eleanor Roosevelt: “It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death.”
Oscar Wilde: “Who, being loved, is poor?"
Sophocles: “One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.”
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