And so...

Love, Truth, Beauty, Trust, Harmony and Peace.

These words have been and continue to be, even to this day the mantra I live my life by. I like to imagine each of the words being the point of the Star of David (a 6 pointed star) as I recite them over and over as I would any mantra.  It calms me and brings me closer to God. 

Imagine with me, for just one moment, if everyone in Dschang or Yaounde, lived by those words every moment of every day.  What would our world be like?  What would our everyday lives be like if EVERYONE lived by these words as their commitment to themselves and treated everyone they meet with those words in the forefront of their minds and hearts?

The first one, Love is more than an emotion.  It is a powerful energetic force in this universe.  It transcends time and space.  And, its the first on my list of words in my mantra for a reason.  Love heals all. Love is the greatest gift we can give to another.  Love is the greatest gift God gives to us.  What if everyone lived their lives with Love in their hearts?  We would certainly live in a very different world. One we all would want to create and live in ourselves.  From my perspective there are only really two basic energies in this universe.  Love and Fear.  Fear being the absence of Love.  From my view, all negative emotions and energies line up right behind Fear: anger, resentment, lust, hate, revenge, greed and the list goes on.  They ALL without exception come from a lack or absence of Love.

And while I don't quote the bible often, this verse fits:

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 - New International Version (Bible)

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

I rest my case...