Love is quite an amazing force when you really sit down and think about it. What's even more amazing is what lengths people are willing to go to for it and what things they do "in the name of love".
In my case, I married a guy who comes from a country very far from my own and I knew this when I intially got involved with him. I also knew that it was always his intention to stay in his country. At the time, I figured yeah why not, its a nice country sure, I'm cool with whatever...Then as time went on, and I had a great job and apartment, car, etc.. in the U.S, I figured well it will probably be a while before we move so I didn't ever give it a lot of thought, nor did I actively pursue finding jobs in his country. Then one day about 2 years ago an opportunity popped up, I looked into it, went on interviews, and bam got a job offer and decided to go for it. To be honest, when I look back now and think about the whole situation, I never for even a microsecond hesitated to give up everything I had to take the job. Why? Because i love my husband and more than anything I wanted us to be together and we had "agreed" we would move to his country at some point. At that point in time, I had just been promoted in my US job, I had my condo and car, both of which I loved, and more than anything I lived in the US. Here is a bit of background on me, when I was young my parents moved us to an island in the Caribbean to help develop the Baha'i Community there. I always felt a close tie to the US and considered myself American. And I always wanted to move back to the US at some point. I just really, really loved it (don't get me wrong, its not a perfect place, i know it is full of flaws, but everyone has a place that they love and for me that is the United States, right or wrong, doesn't matter). So when I think back to the decision made 2 years ago, and realize that I literally picked up, with no hesitation whatsoever, and left EVERYTHING behind ( i only took with me what fit in my suitcases, albeit there were 6 of them), left my family(spread out around US and caribbean, but still much closer via airplane then now) and friends, the life I knew and had built for myself, to go to a country half way around the world, with a culture completely different from my own and a number of other factors, I think, WOW, either I am completely out of my freaking mind (which maybe I am a little), or I REALLY love this guy. All of this said, this is just for the love of a man....
Now what about people who pick up and leave everything behind, literally everything, to go and Serve God. they do so without the guarantee of a job, home, safety, security, etc.., sometimes going to places totally undeveloped and very physically difficult to live in, But when you meet people like this, its like they have a shining lamp inside them, they are such special people, and again, they do it out of PURE love, nothing else, i mean why else would a sane person do such a thing. Or what about people who are martyred for their faith, they are given a simple option, recant or die, and they choose the latter. I mean its human instinct to survive, yet when given a simple option, they choose love over their life, love for God, love for their soul, etc...
SIDE NOTE: Please do not confuse this for those sorely mistaken individuals who go and blow themselves up in the name of religion, salvation, love of their faith, because in my opinion those people are acting in a way which completely goes against everything true religion(including their own) stands for... But that's neither here nor there...
So while my own "sacrifices" if you want to call them that, mainly related to material stuff, its quite amazing to me the things we as human beings do for love. Sometimes it can be comedic, at times mind-boggling, other times heroic, and yet other times sad and wrong, but at the end of the day, regardless of what our actions, one thing remains true, love is indeed one of the greatest if not THE greatest power in this world. It can move the world, just needs to be the right kind!!!
Here is a great quote from the Bahai writings that sums it up perfectly:
"In the world of humanity the greatest king and sovereign is love. If love were extinguished, the power of attraction dispelled, the affinity of human hearts destroyed, the phenomena of human life would disappear." - 'Abdu'l Baha
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2 comments:
I appreciate that a person gives up stuff they like and so on, now i KNOW for a fact that your handsome husband is WAY proud of you and knows how much of the stuff that you liked you have given up BUT on the other hand he also knows how much you have GAINED and how good of life you ALSO now enjoy so thats great TOO!! but as you said nothing matters but LOVE!!
Here, here! Love is a powerful thing, and one should always follow it. I agree with anonymous; there is give and take, loose and win in every situation, no less with love. Material things come and go, but how can we live without love? It is what holds the universe together. And by choosing love you have strengthened your self and your marriage and that is only positive.
And while material things are nice, I would argue that the more sensible lifestyle in Europe is something that aught to be emulated in America. A case in point is the "Story about Stuff" which you can see at http://storyofstuff.com/index.html.
And remember sometimes you have to give up something nice, for something even better.
Love...
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