I was travelling on a train to London with a friend who was visiting from Boston. We had managed to find two seats sitting at a table. Two men, who looked like they might be foreign, were sitting next to us.
My friend and I had a lot to talk about so we chatted for some time before pausing for breath and sitting back. As we did so, one of the men, who had a big bushy beard and sat diagonally across from me, looked straight at me and said, in a loud voice and with a foreign accent, “You must remember to take all your belongings with you when you leave.”
He said, “It is the most important thing in life…. to remember to take all your belongings with you when you leave.” He had obviously paid good attention to the rail passenger announcements and memorised one of them. When he said it for the second time I said, “No, that’s not the most important thing in life.” He then asked, “What is the most important thing in life?” I said, “The most important thing in life is to love and be loved.”
We are all loved because we are loved by the Great Spirit, or God, the source of all love. Any love we receive from any other source is a bonus.
But what about love which emanates from us? If what I said is correct then it’s very important for us to love. The options for doing this are immense. We might love a partner or a family member. We might love a cat or a dog or animals in general. We might love music. We might love nature or walking or rock climbing. Hopefully we love God, who loves us. Loving ourselves, in spite of our failings, is important because if we love ourselves it makes it easier for us to love others.
As Eileen Caddy wrote in Opening Doors Within, “There can never be too much love. Let it flow freely.”
