God brings people along our way to teach us life lessons we need to learn, and to prepare us for the next stages of our journey. At age 23, the year 2013 has taught me so much about love, life, relationship, humility, courage, and joy. It has not been an easy year, yet it was full of essential lessons I need to learn before I face another chapter of my life.
Years of spending time with people from different walks of life, different ages, cultures, and worldview, has made me share love with people easily. I remember that I used to easily get attached to people I work with, that it becomes hard for me to say goodbye once I have to leave and move on to my next destination. Through time, I have learned how to completely share love with people, without being too emotionally attached to the point of crying every time I had to say goodbye. This year, I have learned to express love and care without the emotional attachment and painful goodbyes. I learned it the hard way.
Building relationships with people also taught me very important lessons on love and relationship. It is easy to build relationships with people who have similar mind set as ours, but it is challenging and very difficult to build relationships, much more maintain one, with people who have totally different perspectives! Genuine love is tested when you have relationships with people who may at times have conflicting ideas and personalities, and that is the beauty of love that God has taught me this year.
Genuine relationships are built on genuine love. Genuine love brings genuine relationships. These two are inseparable. If a relationship is built on other motives outside of genuine love for the person, it usually does not work, or may not last very long. Genuine love is manifested in genuine care, protection, respect, understanding, humility, honesty, and transparency with one another. The mutuality of these manifestations create a beautiful illustration of genuine love and relationship. There are times, however, that genuine love and its manifestations are not mutually shared. That is the lesson God allowed me to learn from the previous year.
In the past, I have been loved by someone whose love I cannot reciprocate. This love did not last, leading the other person to look for a love that will reciprocate his. This experience hurt my pride more than anything else. This experience, I thought, would be the greatest lesson in love that I will learn, and yet there are still so many things I have not known until 2013. One day I woke up to a painful realization that there are people I've learned to love but does not share that same love with me. It is a challenge God has led my way to understand the essence of love.
Loving someone who shares the same love with you is a perfect illustration of love. God has created humanity to share His love with us, in the first place. It hurts, however, if we love someone who totally doesn't care and rejects the love we offer. I can't imagine how much hurt God could be when His own creation chooses to set apart from Him. It is the lesson I am learning. The art of love, risking love, and getting hurt when this love is not reciprocated.
Love is the foundation of genuine relationships. You should never expect to be loved mutually, but the beauty of it is that "you can never go wrong with love." Love, when shared mutually, is a very beautiful thing. But loving freely and unconditionally - even people who are hard to love, is the greatest gift we could offer to humanity, and an even greater gift we allow ourselves to receive.
Give love, share love, receive love. :)
Happy and Lovely 2014!
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