It’s been a month, and the new year continues evolving into something I’m happy about. To my surprise, time has slowed into a mindset no longer foreign. Learning another language is more of a normalcy than hearing English spoken every day. I ponder with hope and enthusiasm as to what the next months will bring.
Different cultures maneuver, walking along narrow cobblestone streets as if a part of multi-instrumental symphonies. This is something I’ve never found in California. I guess because cars are the primary mode of movement and courtesy is non-existent. Not owning an automobile in Europe, for me, is unconditional.
At the start of 2024, I was watching BBC and one newscaster’s comments have stayed with me. “This year has been oversaturated with nothing but depressing news. But as we observe our part of the world’s fireworks, because the ones from America are hours away, it comes to mind that for these few minutes, we are one.” I watched interview snippets from artists, athletes, writers, musicians, teachers, and students from the UK, Australia, Eastern and Western Europe, particularly Ukraine, Africa, New Zealand, Thailand, South Korea, Beijing, and various Scandinavian countries—and the same tone was repeated . . . peace and working together for mankind’s survival. I thought, can unconditional love get any better? Would the people in America, when the new year comes, embrace this simplistic idea? I was born in the States, and after all these years, still contemplate if the masses can see the light through the thick forest?!
Differences are something really sticking to me this February, the month of love. I think of friends I no longer have connections with because of our life’s views, or family members who have strayed away and probably don’t even know where I live in the world, to the politicians’ toxic ideals. Is the saying true: one person’s unconditional love is another’s unconditional poison?
This year’s fireworks have given me reasons to embrace an unconditional love for people. I remember the wonderment of all ages, families with children, and shades of skin colors bonding together counting down to the new year. I felt an unconditional hope for a better year as singing, holding hands, hugging, and embracing to the live music playing in the park.
Europe isn’t Utopia, I know, but from where I sit, there’s a light at the end of tunnel called proactive problem solving.
Ironically, wars are wars, and those who continue waging them are slipping into a desperate quagmire. I truly believe the masses will show them, because of the unconditional love for humanity.
I hope as the year proceeds, differences will be quickly settled, and the fireworks that memorialized at the beginning will still carry wonder . . . hopefully, at a slower pace, to keep memories from fading of what good there CAN be.
Sharing a picture of my family’s unconditional love. We were kids at my grandmother’s house one winter’s Christmas. I smile because as cousins we all had those fireworks inside. I’m the one wearing a dark top, standing next to my cousin in a white top.
I got chills throughout reading your post today, and smiled from ear-to-ear, like your cousins in the final photograph, recognizing your smile as a youngster – so free of adult concerns. Thanks for sharing your hopeful views as experienced in a land faraway, in a language you are learning to speak. As one who LOVES languages, I applaud your dedication, and admire your view point to those of us stateside who face storms of all types, physical, mental and spiritual. With God’s guidance, we will survive to smile another day. Amen!
Donna, I don’t take your comments lightly. They resonate deeply. Thank you understanding and respecting my journey.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. My experience in Europe revealed a world still intrinsically attached to reality in a broad spectrum. Stateside, the controlled narrative on all fronts has been very successful at brainwashing and dumbing down the masses in an insulated compression spawning an establishment manifesto that is destroying life as we know it. It sounds harsh but truly our future lies in all of the positive attributes you describe and how many people can and will get on the peace train and evolve in the deep richness of life on the sunny side of the street.
Michael, there, in my observation, are more people seeking positive and genuine living to their lives. It is up to each adult to shelter themselves in an environment that allows such. This search is especially true if there are children. Reconnecting with family and long loss friends is one way to embrace a connection allowing for genuine love and forgiveness. I wish the divisions that are spewing like volcanic ash, can eliminate the what has replaced hope.
Amen…
LOVE is the KEY! Thank you for your words about Unconditional LOVE and how it is essential for us all today. (NOTE: Artificial Intelligence is a machine and is not able to love.) You may be interested in a book I am reading: Self Remembering, The Path to Non-Judgmental Love, by Red Hawk. My Ontology Work Chamber is reading this book and we meet on zoom every Friday at 11:00 am Central Time – to share our personal journeys. https://www.drawingtogether.com/workchamber
Heather, yes, unconditional love is needed. Thank you for your input and ideas, and always supporting my writing.
Dear Cheryl, I, too, am learning Portuguese in order to navigate daily life here in Porto. It’s the small victories that thrill — being understood by a shop clerk or food server can feel like successfully climbing Denali (Mt. McKinley). I spent an evening this past week with a Portuguese friend (actually he was my cardiologist in the hospital last August, but that’s a different story). Our conversation ranged from the personal to the professional to the political. He was very curious about America and whether what he’s read is true. Half true, half false. But when we discussed Portuguese politics, the ousting of the government and the upcoming election, the multiple corruption arrests and trials, etc. his feelings felt dismally similar to our feelings when looking at the U.S. Having differences is natural to human beings, but why can’t we find honorable and well-intended people to fill the leadership roles of society? Why can’t we find the people who put others above themselves to place in these roles? I try not to pay attention to American politics, but I have the same compulsion to look the way I must look at the car accident I drive by.
What does that say about me?
Dear Steve, I have come to conclusion that no matter where I stand and hear the wind, see the sunrise, feel the sunset…there are issues and problems not within me, but with the realm outside my arm’s stretch. What will tomorrow bring? I have no idea. What will the people who haven’t met me, or people who know me feel about me when I’m gone? I have no idea. Love is a word that spreads thin. What I hope for, in my little space I share with those who care, is a respect and kindness long after we’ve parted. Where we choose to live and digest in our lives, we surely have no control…whether it be in Europe, Asia, South America, America…it doesn’t matter. I seek a quiet, void of what I had lived with and has made me change to where I live now. Society, I think doesn’t honor the good people, rather taking in the bad, whose voices seem the loudest now. We can’t change that, but with an unconditional love for ourselves, maybe this is enough to change the world. Thank you for your words and for supporting mine.
Cheryl, Living here in Europe, I find if I don’t listen too much, and take on all the fireworks going on in the world around us, although it’s tempting, I can keep my inner sense of unconditional love alive and sparkling – meditation helps!
Living in Europe has been a blessing. There many more positive days than not.