Growing Love Or Hatred

What do you grow?

Image by Annelise Lords

Marva glanced at the woman sitting beside her and smiled.
The lady looked at her with far-away eyes, extended her right hand, and said, “Hi, I am Paula, this is my fifth time here.”

“Welcome, I am Marva and I have been coming here for eight months,” she introduced herself.

“Don’t you want to know why I always sit beside you?”

Still smiling, Marva said, “Because there is always an empty seat beside me?”
She nodded and revealed, “You are the only one in this place of pain and sorrow that smiles. You are always smiling. We are all here for the same reason. To get help for the emotional, physical, verbal, and psychological trauma done to us by someone who is supposed to love us. Your smile has a light and I can see it. How?” Paula asked, a sad look in her eyes. “Why? You have been through the same hell all of us have, if not more.”

“I am alive,” Marva said with a smile.

“Your mother stuffed you in a chest at 12 years old and threw you into the sea, and that wasn’t her first attempt on your life?”

“I am still alive,” Marva repeated.

“How?” Paula continued. “How do you manage to live with so much pain and still go around smiling?”

Marva took a deep breath and said, “Love and hatred possess the ability to grow; one destroys us, and the other helps us. I choose to grow love.”
Paula stared at her for a long time, fighting to absorb the truth in her words.
Marva sensed her pain and continued, “I am happy because I survived; being alive is happiness for me. I love my life now, and my future is better because of everything my mother did to me in the past. I use love to guide me, and it helps me to be the opposite of her.

Paula stared at her as tears flowed.

Marva continued, “Love shows me how to be a better mother to my children and a better human being. I learned how to love from her cruelty and hatred towards me. I am a better mother, thanks to her. I didn’t allow my past to dictate my future, and neither should you. And that light that you see, it’s love. I have so much love inside of me; it flows out.”

Paula wiped her eyes, and Marva reached out and hugged her, whispering in her left ear, “I chose love and happiness, and hope accompanies it. Then, light follows and guides me along the best path.”

“So if I chose to grow love, it will make me happier?” Paula asked as Marva eased out of her embrace.

“Love grows what humanity needs to be happy. Start growing love!”

Love and hatred do possess the ability to grow. One grows roses, and one grows weeds. What do you grow?

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.