~ Gaylord Nelson ~
I met an eight year old girl on the beach early one morning . As I approached her , the girl asked me what I was looking for . I told her sharks ' teeth and showed her my small handful . She showed me her handful and she offered them to me .
My encounter reminded me how innocent , curious , and generous children can be . As adults , we often become obsessed by our search to improve our collection of things and become preoccupied with fear that someone will take them from us . In the process we move faster each day and forget the joy of standing on a beach or anywhere else in nature for that matter .
Some of us are just beginning our productive years . Some of us are steaming ahead in mid-career . Others are winding down and hopefully have some time and energy left to enjoy our world . In another fifty years , our children and grandchildren will replace us at all the various stages of their own lives .
If they could write us a letter from the future , what would they have to say about the legacy we have left them ? Would they thank us for finding a way to understand and accept each other rather than continuing to compete with each other ? Would they thank us for finding ways to love rather than hate each other ? Would they express their disappointment that we were not able to find a way to live together in harmony ?
That future has not yet arrived and there is still time before such a letter is written . We have choices to make every minute of our lives . No matter where we are in our life journey , we can choose to make the world a little better place with our unique contributions . We can also choose to take whatever we want from the world without giving back in return . We can link with others in their journey through life , ignore them or hate them . We can choose the path of love and acceptance or the path of fear and intolerance .
All of our collective decisions about how to act in each circumstance which appears before us contribute to the legacy we will leave to our children , grandchildren and their descendants . Each of us can contribute to leaving a better place for those who follow us or a worse one . The prophet Jeremiah spoke of God as thinking thoughts of peace and not affliction toward us . He invites us to follow God ' s example . Are you willing to do your part through the actions of your daily life ?
Love between two people has been and always will be a verb and as such is requires action . That means both parties need to make it crystal clear just how much they love one another , honestly if a person is constantly saying that they love you and no action is taking place ( whether it ' s big or small ) that is just not going to work out .
Being vulnerable can seem like somewhat of a weakness to some people but in any real relationship vulnerability is needed to strengthen the bond forged between two people . As you begin to dive into those deeper emotions you begin to find and hopefully accept each others authentic * self *.
listening is a vital part of any relationship , nobody wants to be with someone that does not listen to them . With listening comes understanding and with that problems within the relationship can be addressed and fixed ( which is always good while in a relationship of course ). Listening and communication go hand in hand and it should be equal so that one partner does not feel overburdened by the other . listening is love .