“Love is an act of endless
forgiveness, a tender look which
becomes a habit.” (Peter Ustinov)
I daily receive two quotes with pictures. One of the quotes today, by Peter Ustinov, struck me as relevant to my thinking these days. “Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.” Being forgiving and accepting forgiveness, as I have said before, is tough not only with enemies but with friends.
Love being a “tender look which becomes a habit” reminds me of almost the opposite saying, the Eastern saying, “desire is the source of all suffering.”
If we are looking for more, more stuff, more friends, more acceptance we will suffer when we do not find it. If we take a “tender look” at life we can see that what we have, no matter how much or less, is a gift and blessing that fills us with gratitude.
I was telling one friend about someone who was stigmatized and poor. My friend, poor and stigmatized himself, is always looking for more of life. After my comment he said that I was making him more appreciative and grateful for the life he had.
When I was in Guatemala some years ago I noticed that many poor people with not many things in life were full of joy and gratitude. They desired very little and had made a habit of a ‘tender look’ at life. They even found joy and gratitude in death and celebrated Good Friday as the major feast day of the year. (See Buried in Guatemala.)
Getting free of ‘desire’ is difficult but is made easier when we take a ‘tender look’ at life.
Comments
Please send any comments on this post to . Let us know which day’s post your comments pertain to. If the comments are appropriate we will post them here for you.