LOVE & the approaching Spring of 2022

~ Romanian literary evening featuring Valentine’s Day, “Dragobete” & “Mărțișor” ~

Time is passing by faster than we realize taking us a bit closer to spring, and with this in mind, on Sunday (February 13’22) I was happy to put together our annual gathering featuring Love, the rebirth of nature & few traditional highlights - Valentine’s Day, “Dragobete” & “Mărțișor”.

Aside of that, at this time, lots of social restrictions are still in place in our province so the on-line approach has been adopted again.  

VIDEO-CLIP

After my introductory remarks were delivered, I opened the evening with a short
VIDEO-CLIP I’ve created for the occasion, emphasizing the chosen concepts in a descriptive manner, while warming up the group conversation to come.

I was glad to notice that this was well received by my guests.

Then our program continued and my friends shared openly their thoughts in a relaxed and relaxing fashion, from heart to heart, from soul to soul, from mind to mind.

That evening, our dear friend Dorina, reminded us few old legends (including the "Legends of the Snowdrop flower" - published in comments) that we all enjoyed.

Bringing back plenty of dear memories and expressing personal perspectives in a simple, authentic and genuine manner, brought upon us all a very satisfying sense of peace and inner joy, which I’m very appreciative of.

Extrapolating, I would like to refresh that according to notable scholars, Love is the most powerful force that people are capable of, and here are some concepts:

- The highest form of Love is the unconditional love…this is encompassing “charity”, “compassion” and “the love of & for the Creator”

- It has been observed that more often than not, love is more important than money

- Multiple studies have shown that people with less love in their lives are more likely to feel depressed (love is probably the best anti-depressant, because one of the most common sources of depression is feeling unloved)

- Understand that love is a learned skill, not something that comes from hormones or emotions; it is “an act of will”, based on good communication that helps people feel known and understood (we all know that there are always core differences between people, no matter how good or close they are, but having a good communication in place, it is much easier to find the common ground that works well for all parties involved).

Also, I’ve noticed that during our evening together, comments frequently drifted toward the significance of friendships in our lives, and my guests mentioned that for them having good friends is also important and meaningful, perspective that I totally agree with.

Additionally, here are few remarks about the importance of friendships in our lives, as issued by academics who studied human relations extensively:

- Friendships could feel as close as family, and (just as with family) it takes work (such as: spending quality time together, helping and encouraging each other, being honest with each other, etc.) if you want to build and maintain a lifelong relationship 
- Love, Friendship and Respect bring people together, but ONLY the mutual respect makes the friendship survive a long period of time
- Sharing interests is a key component to a lasting friendship (for instance, sharing similar hobbies or world views would be far more important than having the same taste in clothing or coffee)

- In order to stabilize and grow a relationship, you need to maintain regular contact….either you meet in person or call each other (checking frequently is a proof that you care and at the same time it allows for deeper conversations to happen rather than just basic updates)

- Being available when your friend invites you to an activity it is crucial in order to keep the friendship going (we all know often life gets busy & it is easy to get so wrapped up in our daily routine & friends usually understand that, but if you are always too busy for your friend then you might need to re-evaluate your priorities).

To further accentuate the importance of friends in our lives, in the comments section is an article to this regard…in essence, it is the story of an old man diagnosed with a terminal disease, who went back to his birthplace, and by reconnecting with his roots as well as good old friends he managed to completely revert his illness.
A truly inspiring article (and here is the relating video) featuring a real life situation. Additionally, here is another short video with a similar message.

In closing, as I wrap up my briefing, I would like to share that despite the fact the our gathering that evening was rather cozy, our talks were ample and enjoyable, proving once again that in a busy world it is truly amazing to find few souls with whom you could entertain talks about the philosophy of life.

Definitively, a beautiful evening filled with lots of special moments and for these I’m sending along my most sincere appreciation to each participant who responded to my invitation. Until next time, my warmest regards to all for a pleasing spring to come!

Alice

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”

This event has been delivered in Romanian Language, featuring Romanian culture. 

● Previous events I organized on the same concepts: Love, Spring &“Mărțișor”– 2021, 2020, 2019

● Some of my additional greetings referring to VALENTINE's Day – 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 

"Mărțișor" – 2021, 2020, 2019   | "DRAGOBETE" – 2021, 2020

NOTE: Dear readers, please be advised that on this website each of the previous postings, pertaining to the recurrent annual themes, portray a different perspective of the subject/s presented (same theme/s, but a different outlook without duplication due to the cultural richness of the specific topic/s discussed). 

A World of PEACE

These days, carefully observing what it going on throughout the entire world, it is absolutely impossible not to take a much closer look at the concept of PEACE – at its true meaning, relevance and significance, both at the personal and social levels.

Before sharing with you few thoughts on this, I would like to refresh that in the words of the ancient Greek philosophers, world peace refers to a place where all people live in physical and mental harmony with each other, true peace being considered as one of the most important human values. It doesn’t sound very complicated, but for a reason or another, humanity was always struggling to achieve it and maintain it for long periods of time. But, why? I’m sure we all agree that on this planet, all people and nations deserve to live in a state of peace that is both ideal and just, understanding that this is the only way to bring prosperity and growth to any society. And despite this basic fact, if we flip through the world’s history book, we are completely astonished by the huge number of wars that occurred since this planet came into existence. There have been way too many wars, and they each led to human suffering in numerous situations.

Given that nothing develops during stormy periods, we all could agree that peaceful and harmonious societies are necessary for achieving economic stability, political strength and cultural growth.

According to many elders of the world, we need to keep in mind that in order to proclaim peace to others, we have to have it within ourselves otherwise how could you possibly communicate it to others in a genuine manner?  Yes, peace is also personal, and it helps people eliminate chaos and anxiety, while helping them achieve tranquility in order to make their lives better.

While wars destroy and disrupt everything, peace builds and restore. A world without violence is a world of peace, where nations collaborate with one another.

By world peace we all understand a definite end to various fights all together. Also, peace is the major belief of most religions’ of the world, isn't it?!

Since ancient times, poverty and destruction of human lives have all resulted in lots of peace talks, reflected in economic progress, human development and global peace processes, and without any doubt the global peace might’ve been continuous if these systems have been strengthened.

Historians clearly emphasize that every society requires a peaceful and secure environment, since this is fundamental to their economic and social development, as well as providing their people with rights to have their opinions heard and respected, because peaceful and secure environments enhance development throughout any society. Lots of academic and very well researched peace studies include extensive investigations into nonviolence, alternative dispute resolution, conflict management, effective conflict resolution and violence prevention.

At the personal level, each individual could practice active listening with the intend of understanding not reacting (most of the time for selfish purposes), or being helpful to others when something needs to be done, comprehend more (and be less judgemental), and so on….books are full of thousands of useful tips on how you could become more peaceful, inside out. Peace is necessary not only for progress in life, but for a good health too. A peaceful mind can do good work, and if you manage to create a peaceful environment only then life will unfold properly.

“There is no way to peace; PEACE is the way.”

Observations

When we enter the world, we are absolutely at peace with ourselves, totally unaware of what is awaiting us in this special journey, called “life”. But the magic of worldly life begins to unfold gradually.

Despite the fact that each person has been granted goodness to begin with, unfortunately, some are slowly enfolded in the wraps of desire, greed and lust which in turn fill them with arrogance and anger, beginning to lose their peace of mind, patience, humanity, love and compassion, as the ugliness of stress and anxiety steadily build up into their beings.

Others, turn into kind, sincere, good and cheerful people, who instead of envying they choose to appreciate, who instead of discouraging they learned how to restore hope, to inspire trust and to stimulate courage.
Here I’m talking about those beautiful people who instead of looking arrogantly, cold, empty, superiorly or ignoring, they give a warm helpful hand, offering unconditional support, in a loving, discreet and simple manner. I simply love those ones! Most of the time, they are the ones who like to take care of flowers, they admire the flights of birds and don’t crush any ants under their foot, they peacefully contemplate a sunrise or a sunset, they enjoy the clear skies or the stars, they take time to listen to the waves of the ocean, to the sound of the wind, or to the rustle of the forest. Yes, I’m referring to those beautiful people who live life with enthusiasm and gratitude, with meaning and grace, with honesty and dignity. I strongly believe that it is important to be aware of the magical charms of this world, to protect ourselves from going astray, and to offer ourselves (and to each other) stress free lives, filled with kindness.

In my opinion, it does help to smile at every chance we get, not because life has been easy, perfect or exactly as we anticipated, but because we choose to be happy and grateful for all the good things we each have in our lives and all the problems we know that we don’t have.

Every new day comes with a new beginning...make it bright!