Something To Think About

The line is "Faith, Hope, and Love are some good things He gave us, and the greatest is love."  It's in a song called "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" by Alan Jackson and it's a song written for September 11, 2001.

I was thinking about those 3 things: Faith, Hope, and Love, and I remembered some wisdom and I want to share it with you guys. 

Faith: When you say the word, most people's minds jump instantly to a church, a priest/pastor/bishop/minister/etc, a congregation of people with similar beliefs.  That's where my mind goes, but then I remembered what my Dad told me: You don't have to have an "organized religion" type of faith; the point is not WHAT you believe but that you BELIEVE; it's not WHICH faith, it's that you HAVE faith. 

Upon reflection last night, I realized that I do have faith; I have faith that humanity will change for the better.  I have faith that someday every person's heart and mind will open and they'll realize that love is love.  I have faith that someday everyone will realize that marriage should be redefined as a union between two souls who commit to one another solely; a union between two people who love one another both for their light and dark.   I have faith that when I die, I'll be given the choice to remain here on Earth or cross over to what ever lies beyond.  I have faith that my soul will be taken care of; I have faith that whatever "God" exists will judge a soul based on the decisions it made, rather than the "evils" society deems it with.

I have faith that things will get better.  

Hope: When I think about it, hope seems like a slightly weaker version of faith.  It's no less than faith in terms of importance or motivation, but they're different in my mind in at least one way: hope is a wish, faith is a feeling of certainty.  For example: I could hope that people would open their minds and hearts about Gay marriage; for me this implies an element of doubt.  I have faith, a sense of certainty, that someday (certainly not tomorrow) minds and hearts will change for the better. 

I don't wish to discredit hope; for a long time I hoped that things would get better. Now I've shifted my view of myself and my view of the world, and I have faith, a known certainty, that they're getting much better. Hope is an important thing; it's the spark that ignites faith.  Hope is the spark of a movement, the spark of a cause, the spark of change, and it can be an invaluable asset. 

Hope is a chance, a promise, of change. 

Love: Love is so much harder to nail down.  Philosophers have tried to analyze and label love; to give it chronological steps which must be followed in order to truly be love.  Well, there are different types of love, and none is less valuable than another. My parents love me differently than my friends do; the kids I babysit love me differently than their parents do.  I've never had a partner, so I don't know what passionate, romantic love between two souls feels like. 

Even though I've never experienced romantic, passionate love, I'm still incredibly loved.  When Makena falls asleep on my chest or gives me kisses, I know I am loved; when Hunter runs into my arms and doesn't want to leave, I know I am loved.  When I come home from a long day out and my cat wants to cuddle, I know I am loved.

Love has many forms and cannot be defined or molded into anything more or less than what it is. 

I keep thinking of my life and how drastically it's changing, and I can't help but think, "has it always been this way, and I've just been to sunk in depression to notice?"  I've been holding onto grudges and wounds for so long, and now that I'm letting them go and moving slowly forward, I can't help but wonder how much I've missed.

I'm not going to write my friend back.  She won't really listen to what I've got to say, so as always, I'm going to bury my feelings under the rug and hope they don't crop up again.  Now I know for sure who I can go to and who I can't, and what I have to do from now on.