More beauty from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

“A fifth point concerning nonviolent resistance is that it avoids not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. The nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent but he also refuses to hate him. At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love.”

I am in awe of the brilliance of these words. And MLK is a beautiful mouthpiece for this truth because no one can accuse him of ignoring or enabling injustice in the world. He wasn’t just calling us to be “nice” to mean people. He was calling us to love them, which is a far deeper calling.

But I’m not only thinking about how to bring about societal or systemic change. These words are a beautiful rule for all of life, suited to govern not just societal engagement, but individual relationships.

I want to be freed up more and more to love not only politicians, and celebrities with whom I disagree, but also the individual faces and souls with which I come into contact every day.