Motivation Mondays: Love’s Benevolent Protection

“Those we love don’t go away, they walk beside us every day.” Anon

Motivation Mondays: Love’s Benevolent Protection

Love’s Benevolent Protection:
As I reflected on the recent loss of 3 people I loved and cared about, I stumbled on an old Instagram post and decided to expand on it with more insight and a few short poems.
Because familial and friendship love tend to be constant, it is often taken for granted. The love we share with those closest to us is like a comfort food that fills our stomach again and again in that assured, steady way we have come to expect. We don’t have to campaign for, negotiate, or manipulate it because it’s a knowing and it is always there…
We only stop to brace the enormity of it when we experience loss, any kind of loss, but especially the loss of loved ones.

Yet in our darkest hour, if we tap back to memories of good times and even bad times we shared together, we can find solace in our memories. Our memories are like a capsule, capturing cherished and not-so-cherished events that we can whip out or revisit when we need to. It can have healing qualities as long as we wish to hold onto them. When we are ready, we can put them away until another day. Such is the beauty and power of memories, and that is why so many of us make them during our lifetimes.

“She’s In the Sun, the Wind, the Rain” (Excerpt) by Christy Ann Martine
She’s in the sun, the wind, the rain;
She’s in the air you breathe with every breath you take.
She sings a song of hope and cheer,
there’s no more pain, no more fear.

Treasures: “Treasure your relationships, not your possessions.” Anthony J. D’Angelo
As a child, I learned that loved ones served as guardian angels once they crossed into the great beyond. We looked at our ancestral ties as eternal treasures and powerful connections to the land of our forefathers and trusted that they were alive and well, working closely with our Creator to ensure that we were all fully protected from life’s tragedies and unforeseen circumstances. We treasured those relationships, and they carried over into other realms of existence.

This belief was carried into adulthood as we experienced magical moments and incidents that we professed were surely ordained by God’s grace and the pleas of our grandmothers, mothers, and distant relatives rooting for us. The point is that true love, agape love, maternal love, filial love, and the pure, unadulterated, non-transactional love we share with our nearest and dearest have a profound and protective quality. They are eternal treasures that cannot be bought or sold ot cast away after a period of enjoyment. True treasures are not like possessions; they come with no expiration date and non-negotiable terms. They are the time we spent building and nurturing our relationships with our loved ones and others.

A Story: The Last Wishes of Alexander the Great…
On his deathbed, Alexander summoned his army generals and told them his three ultimate wishes:
1. The best doctors should carry his coffin …
2. The wealth he has accumulated (money, gold, precious stones) should be scattered along the procession to the cemetery …
3. His hands should be let loose, so they hang outside the coffin for all to see!
One of his generals, who was surprised by these unusual requests, asked Alexander to explain.
Here is what Alexander the Great had to say:
1. “I want the best doctors to carry my coffin to demonstrate that in the face of death, even the best doctors in the world have no power to heal…”
2. “I want the road to be covered with my treasures so that everybody sees that material wealth acquired on earth will stay on earth…”
3. I want my hands to swing in the wind, so that people understand that we come to this world empty-handed and we leave this world empty-handed after the most precious treasure of all is exhausted, and that is: TIME.
We do not take to our grave any material wealth or possessions. TIME is our most precious treasure because it is LIMITED. We can produce more wealth, but we cannot produce more time. When we give someone our time, we actually give a portion of our life that we will never take back. Our time is our life. The best present you can give your family is your time and your life.

More Below!

“Your life was a blessing, your memory a treasure. You are loved beyond words and missed beyond measure.” Anon

Motivation Mondays: Love’s Benevolent Protection

The Power of Time: Again, I reflected on the past losses of people I loved and cared about: parents, family, friends, and colleagues, and when time stopped for each one, it reminded the rest of us that time ticks on and never waits for clarification. Do the work now and make the mistakes now.
How are you spending your time? A few years ago, two dear friends passed away suddenly. Their deaths were unexpected. One had been ailing but was not critically ill. The other was getting ready for work. I attended the wakes for these two dear souls and friends, and it got me thinking. Constance was one of my best and closest friends in the USA. When I came to the US, she was one of the first people to help me settle into academic life at Columbia and adjust to the challenges of being in NYC. She was a terrific human being who applauded and encouraged all of us to aim high. She didn’t care about social media, as her blood-and-flesh friendships mattered more.

Over the years, she introduced me to lots of wonderful people and shared so many great healthy habits with me. She was a health-conscious and hardworking soul. She did all the right things. Eze was a devoted father and friend to many. He was a prayerful man of God and raised three children alone. He was my bestie, Diahann’s boyfriend, and had so much life left in him, too. He, too, lived an exemplary life. Both left this planet on God’s time, not our own, and we mourned them deeply. We remember them with love, and that matters a lot to their loved ones.

“She Is Gone” (Excerpt) by David Harkins
You can shed tears that she is gone,
Or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back,
Or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left.

“Afterglow” by Helen Lowrie Marshall
I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one.
I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done.
I’d like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways,
Of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days.

Make Peace with the Present: “If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.” falsely attributed to Lao Tzu

It is a human quality to worry, stress out, and be pulled by every emotional tug out there, daily. We get that. We can choose to try something different, and while it takes effort, the benefits are huge. Where were you with that inner dialogue and making peace with the present? What is holding us back? Attachments to the past? Anxieties about unknown future events?

The choice is entirely up to us when we decide to let things go and be present. I am a bit of a worrier, and meanness, thoughtlessness, and indifference bother me deeply. I can work to ignore it, confront it, examine it, or chastise it and keep moving forward. If it stands in the way of my peace, I address it. What about you? How are you making peace with the past and present? 

A Story: Peace XVIII by Khalil Gibran
The tempest calmed after bending the trees’ branches and leaning heavily upon the grain in the field. The stars appeared as broken remnants of lightning, but now silence prevailed over all, as if Nature’s war had never been fought.

At that hour, a young woman entered her chamber and knelt by her bed, sobbing bitterly. Her heart flamed with agony, but she could finally open her lips and say, “Oh Lord, bring him home safely to me. I have exhausted my tears and can offer no more, oh Lord, full of love and mercy. My patience is drained, and calamity is seeking possession of my heart. Save him, oh Lord, from the iron paws of War; deliver him from such unmerciful Death, for he is weak, governed by the strong. Oh Lord, save my beloved, who is Thine own son, from the foe, who is Thy foe. Keep him from the forced pathway to Death’s door; let him see me, or come and take me to him.”

Quietly, a young man entered. His head was wrapped in a bandage soaked with escaping life.

He approached her with a greeting of tears and laughter, then took her hand and placed his flaming lips against it. And with a voice with bespoke past sorrow, and joy of union, and uncertainty of her reaction, he said, “Fear me not, for I am the object of your plea. Be glad, for Peace has carried me back safely to you, and humanity has restored what greed essayed to take from us. Be not sad, but smile, my beloved. Do not express bewilderment, for Love has power that dispels Death; charm that conquers the enemy. I am your one. Think me not a specter emerging from the House of Death to visit your Home of Beauty.

“Do not be frightened, for I am now Truth, spared from swords and fire to reveal to the people the triumph of Love over War. I am Word uttering an introduction to the play of happiness and peace.”

Then the young man became speechless, and his tears spoke the language of the heart; and the angels of Joy hovered about that dwelling, and the two hearts restored the singleness which had been taken from them.

At dawn, the two stood in the middle of the field contemplating the beauty of Nature injured by the tempest. After a deep and comforting silence, the soldier said to his sweetheart, “Look at the Darkness, giving birth to the Sun.” via famouspoetsandpoems

For More: Motivation Mondays

“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!” Anne Frank

Positive Motivation Tip: Give your loved ones the best of yourself by being present now and by treasuring the moments you share.

Related Posts

• Motivation Mondays: Remember & Honor #MemorialDay(mirthandmotivation)
• Motivation Mondays: LOYALTY(mirthandmotivation)
• Motivation Mondays: Universal Values (mirthandmotivation)
• Serendipity: Some Positive Markers for March… (mirthandmotivation)
• Motivation Mondays: Add Value (mirthandmotivation)
• Motivation Mondays: POSSESSIONS #mondaymotivation (mirthandmotivation)
• Reflections on Memorial Day: Of War and Peace…(mirthandmotivation)
• Life is a Celebration: When Festival and Values Merge…(mirthandmotivation)
• Motivation Mondays: Peace with Our Past (mirthandmotivation)
• Motivation 2020: Mental Health Awareness Month & Memorial Day  (mirthandmotivation)
• Motivation Mondays: RESURRECTION (mirthandmotivation)
• Reflections: The Toughest Questions(mirthandmotivation)
• Fiction: Jacaranda Returns Home For Good (mirthandmotivation)
• Motivation Mondays: STAY STEADFAST(mirthandmotivation)
• Motivation Mondays: BREATHE (mirthandmotivation)
• Motivation Mondays: SCARED(mirthandmotivation)
• Motivation Mondays: Live Your Wild & Precious Life (mirthandmotivation)
• Motivation 2020: On Father’s Day #FathersDay (mirthandmotivation)
• Motivation Mondays: Silence Is Betrayal – #MLKDAY  (mirthandmotivation)
• Motivation Mondays: For Our Mothers #mothersday(mirthandmotivation)

PHOTO CREDITS/ATTRIBUTIONS: All Photos: Love’s Benevolent Protection via Stock Free Adobe

Until Next Time…
Ask. Believe. Receive. ©
Elizabeth Obih-Frank
Mirth and Motivation
Positive Kismet