“I believe that love is the answer”
– Blessid Union of Souls
The key holder
“Once upon a time, in a small village, lived a family. They had a small guest house at the back of their property, where people passing by stayed for the night. All four of their kids helped in the guest house and when they finished their chores, went to play with the other kids – all but the second son, Tom. Tom was a very quiet and a sad boy. He never smiled, never laughed and the other kids did not want to play with him.
One day, an old man came to the guest house and Tom, who loved listening to the guests’ stories, showed the old man his room.
“What is your name, son?” asked the old man.
“Tom”, said the boy.
“Tell me Tom, how come you are not playing with the other kids outside?” asked the old man and took off his shoulder a heavy bag, which made a metallic sound.
“They make fun of me and call me names”, said Tom and helped the old man unpack.
“That is not nice. What do you love Tom?” asked the old man and open the bag, showing hundreds of big, heavy metal keys.
“Nothing”, said Tom. Then, thought about it for a second, “Actually, I love stories. The guest here have wonderful stories”, he said, “What about you?”
“I love keys”, said the old man and shook his bag, “What about fears? What are you afraid of?” he asked Tom, putting his hand into the bag and looking for a key.
“I am afraid of the kids and that one day people will stop coming to our guest house and that someone might get hurt…”, but before he finished his sentence, the old man held a key in his hand and said excitedly, “Yes, I have got it”, and he came closer to Tom.
“Come, sit next to me. I have the key you need”, said the old man and showed Tom a large metal key. “I’ll tell you a story. Legend says that just before you were born, the angels had a farewell party for you. As a gift, they gave you two boxes – one was a love box to put all the good and happy things in your life and one was a fear box, to hold all the things you do not like or are afraid of. When you open the love box, angels fly around you and make you even happier, but when you open the fear box, demons take over and you feel scared and sad. We all had that gift at our farewell party. We were given the boxes, but we didn’t get the keys to open them.”
Tom looked at the bag of keys and got his hand in. The keys were very heavy.
“Why do we need the keys?” asked Tom.
“To open the love box and close the fear box”, said the old man.
“Do you have the keys?” asked Tom.
The old man smiled. “I am the key holder. I have just the key for you”, he said and handed Tom the key.
Tom held the key in his hand. He felt strong and happy. He smiled and remembered the magician guest who showed him some magic tricks. That was fun. He looked at his key and it made him feel great. For a second, he forgot the old man, who walked back to his bag and tied it slowly. Tom was so happy and excited he wanted to run to the kids outside and show them his magic love key. His love box was wide open.
“Thank you, thank you! It is a wonderful key. Can I keep it?” asked Tom.
“Sure, it is yours”.
“What about your key?” asked Tom.
The old man showed him a heavy key on a chain around his neck.
“I’m fine. My key is safe and sound”, he said and started packing his things.
“Are you leaving already?” asked Tom in fear. His parents would be upset to see the old man leaving so soon.
“Many keys to deliver”, said the old man and stood at the door with the bag of keys on his shoulder. Tom looked at the key around his neck. There was only one key. He could not stop thinking about the fear box. He felt the demons all around him and he wanted to keep them locked.
“What about the other key?” Tom asked the old man just before he left his room. The old man turned his head to Tom and smiled.
“The fear box opens only when the love box is closed”, he said and left the room.
Some say that there are only two feelings in the world – love and fear. In this philosophy, love and fear are categories of emotions, so we have two boxes: good feelings belong in the love box and bad feelings belong in the fear box.
In the love box, there are feelings like: joy, pride, happiness, compassion, kindness and fun.
In the fear box, there are feelings like: sadness, frustration, guilt, disappointment and anger.
If you can divide the entire range of feelings to these two categories, life is much easier. Think about it, if you feel good, your love box is open and allows angels to spread in your body. If you do not feel good about something, your fear box is open and allows the demons to float freely in your system.
Love and fear are ranges of feelings. At any second in life, you either have angels or the demons in your system. It is the number of demons or the number of angels that determines how successful you feel, how much fun you have, how frustrated or angry you are.
A similar philosophy claims that there is only one feeling in the world – love – and that fear is the absence of love.
People are emotional beings. Everything they do is meant to give them a feeling, hopefully from the love box. Unfortunately, many people dedicate too much time to find ways to close the fear box, instead of focusing on opening the love box.
Remember, the fear box opens whenever the love box is closed.
Tips to open your love box:
- Learn to recognise which box is open at any given moment – is your feeling based on fear or on love?
- Whenever you are afraid, hold your imaginary key next to your chest. You hold the key to open your love box. You have the power!
- Make a list of all the things that make you happy. How many? The more, the better, but aim for 100.
- Make a list of all the things you are grateful for. Again, go over your life and remember to mention every tiny thing you are grateful.
- Tell someone how much you love him/her.
- Call someone you have not talked to for a while.
- Write a success journal and record all the good things that happened to you during the day.
- Hang around people with huge open love boxes. It is contagious.
- Make a random act of kindness.
- Give your partners a list of the ways they can make you happy and ask for their list.
- Pick one item from your list every day and make yourself happy.
- Dream!
- Go over your childhood album and bring up good memories.
- Find a job that opens your love box every day. Our work takes a lot of energy. If you have demons at work, find ways to bring angels.
- If you are afraid of change, you are taken by demons. Letting go creates a great feeling of freedom and it has many sprinkles of angels. Practice letting go.
- Smile! It is free. There are lots of angels in each smile.
- If things do not happen the way you want them to happen and there is nothing you can do about it, move on. Moving on in spite the challenges requires the love box to be open.
- Many people have an open fear box because they do not know they have the key. Forgive them! If you use your love key often, it will help everyone around you find theirs.
- Hug, hug a lot. You need 12 hugs a day
- It is 2008, and you have 9 month until the end of the year to come up with 2008 things you want to do in your lifetime – things that will keep you happy, motivated, empowered, healthy and successful.
And to add things to your box, I send you all lots of love for Valentines Day with the song “Love is the answer”. Enjoy!
Love,
Ronit
“I Believe”
– Blessid Union of Souls
Walk blindly to the light and reach out for his hand
Don’t ask any questions and don’t try to understand
Open up your mind and then open up your heart
And you will see that you and me aren’t very far apart
‘Cause I believe that love is the answer
I believe that love will find the way
Violence is spread worldwide and there are families on the street
And we sell drugs to children now oh why can’t we just see
That all we do is eliminate our future with the things we do today
Money is our incentive now so that makes it okay
But I believe that love is the answer
I believe that love will find the way
I believe that love is the answer
I believe that love will find the way
I’ve been seeing Lisa now for a little over a year
She said she’s never been so happy but Lisa lives in fear
That one day daddy’s gonna find out she’s in love
With a nigger from the streets
Oh how he would lose it then but she’s still here with me
‘Cause she believes that love will see it through
And one day he’ll understand
And he’ll see me as a person not just a black man
‘Cause I believe that love is the answer
I believe that love will find the way
I believe I believe I believe I believe that love is the answer
I believe that love will find the way
Love will find the way
Love will find the way
Love will find the way
Please love find the way
Please love find the way
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