Every Act is an Act of Self-Love

I saw a Tik Tok the other day that had a message on it that I don’t think I’ll ever forget:

“The moment you recognize at your core you are the universe experiencing itself from one specific perspective, and everyone you’ve ever met or will meet is also you, every act of love becomes an act of self-love”

@rea.earth (Tik Tok)

While the quote only refers to people, it gives me peace to think that I will eventually be every blade of grass, every ant, and every tree that grows in the universe. Somehow it makes me feel less lonely and more whole, even though this would imply that I, or we, are the only thing to exist.

I really enjoy the message of being connected to every other person on earth. It can be hard to convince myself to do things for others sometimes, even though I consider myself to be fairly selfless. But when I take into account that an act of love I perform for a family member, a friend, or a stranger will eventually impact me in another time frame, it becomes even more fulfilling to help someone else since I know I’m making myself a more enriched person, also. I suppose this sounds selfish, but being able to care about someone, or anyone, as deeply as I care about myself is so valuable in understanding others’ actions and lives.

Recently, I was driving back to Arkansas from Memphis, and at a stoplight, I saw a couple with a young baby asking for money on the side of the road. Usually, I don’t have cash, but after seeing my grandparents for a few days my wallet was a bit heavier than when I arrived. Honestly, I don’t know how to interact with homeless people. I was raised to ignore them, and as such I typically do, but this has always troubled me to the bone. On this day, I thought about the above quote; they were just people who needed help, and one day in another life I could be one of these people asking for help from strangers. I made an effort to break away from the inhumane teachings of my upbringing on the homeless, and I sympathized with them. It made me feel more human and connected. I gave the father a $5 bill, and although I cannot control how they spent that money, it doesn’t matter because I did what I could for them at that moment. It was a gift from me to them, or, rather, a gift from one piece of the universe to another.