My name is Love

Call me romantic, crazy, visionary, deluded or a dreamer, but in these days of emergency I still feel positive despite everything. I know for sure deep down my heart that we are currently experiencing an event that will mark us so deeply that, once all this is over, we will no longer be the same.

And this is a first positive sign in itself. Because, let’s face it, before all this happened we were in no good shape, we did not stand out for our spiritual characteristics.

Let me explain: I’m talking about us, contemporary men and women. Of course, in the past humanity witnessed many enlightened wise people, let’s think about the millennial Indian culture, the ancient philosophers and thinkers, the skilled Roman leaders, the Renaissance masters, the great classical music composers. Even when I think about the last century, other very important personalities who made history and acted for the good of mankind come to my mind: Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, just to mention the most notorious ones.

But if I consider how most of us have lowered themselves over the years and how we have all led our lives in the last 20 years, I can unfortunately see how our existence has precipitated, I see ourselves falling from the splendor of those great enlighted minds down towards darkness until we reached Dante’s Hell.

Let’s stop for a while and let’s observe all together:

• How did we live until a few weeks ago?
• How were our days organized? What rhythms did we have?
• Could we find spare time to devote to ourselves?
• Were we happy with our lives?
• What emotions did we mainly feel? Did we feel happy and calm or were we stressed and nervous?

These are just some of the questions we can (and in my opinion should) ask ourselves. And I’m sure somebody will answer that yes, they were very happy with their own life before, while now they feel lost because they feel that those certainties are now missing. And this is understandable, because, with some exceptions, the human beings were caused to need stability, continuity, habits and a comfort zone.

But let’s think about it. As it is complicated to look inside oneself and much easier to analyze the others, then in order for us to better understand the mechanisms that normally happen within ourselves let’s observe people around us. Before this detention to which we are all more or less forced, how many people did we hear complaining every day and maybe several times a day for problems they had with their boss or their work colleagues. How many others were complaining for misunderstandings with their partner or for generational clashes with their teenage children? Maybe these people are exactly the same who now complain on social media about being forced home while in the meantime they have realized how nice it is to spend the day with their colleagues at work. Maybe they are the same who now lament not being able to leave home and visit their children or grand-children living far away. Or they are those who now say: “what?!? home all day long with my husband? Are you kidding me?!?”

Now, let’s be honest with ourselves first and let us ask ourselves: did I really never complain? not even a little bit? and about what? was I really satisfied with my life? and if so, why then did I spend time complaining about not so important matters? Or if not, why didn’t I do anything to change for the better?

This said, I hope, actually I firmly believe that these days of surreal calm will serve each one of us to take stock of our lives, to focus on the ideals we believe in and to assess where we are heading. In this sense, this situation will serve us as a breaking point between our past and our future. Time has come for us to stop,  look at ourselves in the mirror and honestly ponder over our own existence.

We currently read everything and its opposite in the web. However, the prevailing feeling is not fear as someone would like, it’s hope instead. And this is the second positive aspect of this crisis. Yes, because unconsciously the fact that we share a purpose, a common denominator, a positive state of mind is already a signal of unity in a country, Italy (but in general we could extend this reasoning to the whole world), whose history is marked by wars, battles, clashes, separations, abuses. This feeling of hope is indeed a sprout of rebirth.

In fact, if all or most of us are feeling a faint hope inside and if we are all starting to feel that the life we ​​were leading before is not a good one, then it means that we are unknowingly already united by a potential force with regenerating power for ourselves and for the whole Planet.

The web is full of posts about solidarity and many flashmobs are organized in all our cities to send positive messages of hope, namely of rebirth. All this was not given for granted until a few weeks ago. It is an exceptional event that a whole nation has decided, lights off, to point all its cell phones up at the sky at 9.00 p.m. in order for the satellite to record them and thus show its Light to the entire world. In these days people were able to organize themselves online and to virtually meet at a given time of the day to sing the National Anthem, something which was unimaginable until a few days ago, when everybody was fighting a battle of the have-nots! The fact that, as a reaction to the immobility of the institutions too busy keeping good relationships with Dominating Europe, many citizens have spontaneously started raising funds to be allocated to Public Health to help gather respirators, to create Intensive Care wards and to invest the remaining amount to face the health emergency is also something which was far from obvious before!

This means, and hence my strong feeling of positivity, that, however atrophied, we still keep a flame of Love within ourselves. And not only the flame is there, but it is awakening. And if it wakes up and we feed it daily and reinvigorate it constantly, now that we are forced home and have more time at our disposal to meditate, then this weak flame will gradually become a stronger flame, then a fire, then a very intense light, until it explodes irradiating everything and everyone. A wave of love that will regenerate and give new force to everybody. Or at least to all those who are able to see this crisis as an opportunity for growth and evolution.

This is what it is all about: this emergency is in fact a second chance we were given.

Therefore, we have two paths ahead of us:

• either we don’t take this chance, we remain caught up in fear and despair and thus fall victims to the enemy and its trap,
• or we roll up our sleeves, not only physically but also and above all spiritually, we move on to the next level as in the best videogames and get ready for victory!

I suggest taking this latter path, because I know that together we can make it. Because in each one of you I recognize that feeble flame that I also feel inside myself. Because I know that the great personalities from the past are living again through us, our actions and our emotions. Because I know that we are not the only ones who want Good to prevail on this Planet. Because I know that each of us is a warrior of the great, only and true army that should be recognized, i.e. the Army of Love.

Call me romantic, crazy, visionary, deluded or dreamer. I am all this but I am also Erika, I am Milan, I am Italy, I am the World. Call me whatever you want: my name is Love!

Erika Barani
Blogger Rebis Group

Translation by Erika Barani