In love: new year, new life!
Chesterton wrote: "The goal of having a New Year it is not that we have a new year, it is that we must have a new soul. "We can ask ourselves: How can new love be made? How can love be with a love of quality?
Love is based on a meeting between two people to form a new unit, a "unity in love": it is a call to something great. Usually begins with falling in love, which captures our attention in the form of beauty, and we are surprised to see that unexpected dimension. Being in love is something that is given to us, an impressive gift that no one can say that he deserved it. And that initial glare allows us to glimpse the goal we can reach. It helps us to get out of ourselves, to bridge the "you", and to form a "we". In addition, love makes our heart warmer, more understanding, more empathetic.
Because the love consists of a reaction of feelings and of the will that indulges in the good of the other person and pushes us to love it with all our heart, with all our soul, and to put ourselves at their service to help them be happy. We no longer conceive a world without its presence; It is more, it is that person who has illuminated our entire world.
So, how to improve love?
Does it grow only with letting ourselves be carried away by feelings? On this planet, everything valuable must be cultivated and we must put effort into it. If not, it can weaken, dry up and disappear ... Therefore, we must put effort to make our love today look like that flash we had, that dazzled us. That is to say, that we go to what our love is called to be.
Because so that love does not decay, we can feed it every day with small details, which will eventually become habits and virtues. Love stimulates us and helps us to grow, to improve; and those habits get fed love. They can be habits of generosity, kindness, service, gratitude ...
Resorting to a metaphor, love is like a fire that has to be fanned with continuous little things every day and big trunks in cold winters; but the litter, the details, is what best turns on. It is necessary to avoid that the fire diminishes or extinguishes: it is necessary to be pending so that it gives us its light and heat. In addition, the sensitive exteriorizations of love, those affectionate gestures, increase the positive feelings towards the other, and we must endeavor to enliven them every day.
To renew our love we can discover the best of the other, to thank him and encourage him to develop it, with all our affection; and not stop showing him that we love him, with favorable feelings or not.
Mª José Calvo. Family doctor. Optimists Educating
