Today is my birthday. I am twenty-five years old.
This morning, as my alarm went off, I rolled over in bed to see the smiling face of my husband. He wished me a happy birthday, made me some peanut butter, banana, and chocolate chip pancakes, and posed to me a story and a question.
He told me about his own 25th birthday, nearing the end of his incarceration, on which an older gentleman asked him, "What is the most important thing you've learned in your quarter of a century?"
He pondered the question for the day and came to the conclusion that the most important thing he'd learned was efficiency, and the importance of doing things to the fullest of one's abilities.
This morning, he asked me the same question.
What is the most important thing I've learned in my quarter of a century?
I have a slightly different response than my husband, of course. While I understand the importance of doing things to the fullest of my abilities, that's not the most important thing I've learned in my half of half of a hundred years on this earth. Efficiency is a useful skill, to be sure, and a valuable aspect of a well-lived life, but it, too, is unworthy of the title of most important, in my eyes.
No, that title goes to something that I have believed for years, something that sits in the core of my soul and conducts every part of my life.
The most important thing I've learned in my quarter of a century is this:
Love, in all things, above all else.
We must do everything with a mindset of love. In this way, we can ensure that our intentions are pure, our conscience is clear, and our actions are just. If we look at everything through the eyes of love, we can bring about much needed peace in this world of hate and division.
Nothing, in my mind, is more important than love. It is the meaning of life. Everything we do is done for love of something or someone, be it love of money, our job, our lifestyles, or our families and friends. Even the most vile of actions is often done for love in some way or another. Love is what separates us from the animals. It's what makes us human. It's a state of being.
If we choose, each of us, to love one another, as is demonstrated by our greatest religious leaders, and is featured as a tenet of every faith, perhaps we can bring about an era not of fear and spite, but of harmony and joy.
So, for my birthday, I'm asking you all for one thing: choose love. In all things. I challenge you to try it out. Drop me a comment about how you're choosing love, or post your stories and pictures with the hashtag #loveinallthings.
