It is not often that we hear someone called a coward. Gandhi does it here to get our attention because no one wants to be labeled with such a word. He pairs cowardice with love, a strange combination and yet completely correct. Cowards do not love. They control, they manipulate, they may even show affection but they do not truly love. Love requires bravery, it demands change, it forces us to face the worst parts of ourselves and work every day to become better.
We throw the word love around for all sorts of things. Like telling people we love pizza, or loved her dress, telling them we love traveling and we even use love to describe our favorite movies. Somehow the watering down of the word love has caused us to lose our focus. We are no longer able to act or speak as bravely about how we love others. We glide along and ‘know’ they know we love them when our actions and habits may not resemble anything close to love.
Love requires bravery in our actions, words and habits each and every day. It means being passionate about life knowing that life can be grand or kick you around on any day of the week. Love doesn’t always have a rhyme or reason to it, yet it still dares us to be brave. Love also lets us down, leaves us cold or passes by without even a glance. No matter how love treats us we must choose to be brave in order to have it in our lives.
Today I ask you to be brave in your life. Love your family, love your work, love yourself and dare greatly to love those who are in your life. Love may be right in front of you and if you do not muster up the gumption to look it straight in the face and be honest it may just slip through your fingers. Be brave, be bold, and love your life and everything in it.
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