Once, in a classroom full of children, a child asked her teacher:

        Teacher, what is love?

        The teacher felt that the child deserved an answer in accordance with the intelligent question she had asked.

        Because it was already break time, she asked each student to walk around the school's gardens and bring back something which had the power of awakening the feeling of love in them.

        The children rushed off and in a few minutes they returned.

        The teacher waited until everybody sat down and when they were all silent in the small room, she asked about the task she'd given them:

        I want each one of you to show me the things you’ve brought.

        The first child said: I brought this flower, isn't it pretty?

        The second said: I brought this butterfly. Take a look at the colors of its wings, I will place it in my collection.

        The third child completed: I brought this little bird. He and his brother had fallen off their nest. Isn’t it lovely?

        The children kept on showing everything they had captured outside that could represent love.

        Once the exhibition was over, the teacher noticed that one of the children had remained silent throughout. She was very ashamed, because she'd brought nothing.

        The teacher then approached her and asked:

        Honey, why haven’t you brought anything?

        Embarrassed, she answered:

        I’m sorry, madam. I saw the flower and I felt its perfume. I thought about pulling it out, but I preferred to leave it so that its perfume exhaled for longer.

        I also saw the butterfly, light and colored! She seemed so happy that I didn't have the courage to trap it.

        I found a fallen little bird among the leaves, but, when I climbed up the tree, I noticed its mother's sad look and I preferred to return it to its nest.

        Therefore, teacher, I have with me the perfume of the flower, the sensation of freedom from the butterfly and the gratitude that I felt in the little bird’s mom's eyes when I put her young back in the nest, safe and sound.

        How can I show what I've brought?

        The teacher thanked them all and, looking at the empty-handed child, said:

        You were the only child that noticed that we can only carry love in our heart. 

* * *

        If you have already noticed the beauties God created to decorate the planet that serves us as habitation, don't try to retain those marvels to yourself, because this is not love, it is selfishness.

        If you admire the flowers, leave them where they are, so that others can also feel its perfume and admire its beauty.

        If you revel in contemplating the lightness of the birds sliding in the air, don't trap them in cages, so that other people can also admire them.

        If you appreciate seeing rivers of crystalline waters run among the stones, don't pollute them, so that other eyes can contemplate them, equally.

        If you like to take a bath in the clean waters of the ocean, don't spoil its pureness, so that everybody can make use of this marvel.

        If you feel well breathing pure air, do preserve it so that everybody can enjoy this benefit.

        And, finally, remember: the true feeling of love can only be carried in our own heart. 

Spiritist Moment Team, from a story extracted from Histórias para sua criança interior, by Eliane de Araújo, ed. Roca.
April 15 2008.