The ones born in the same family are united by a blood bond. This bond, however, is not necessarily a bond of love.

        It is not rare to see brothers who are always upset with one another, or maybe are jealous or envious of each other, creating a difficult situation in their houses.

        Some might even be aggressive or usurp rights and goods of one another.

        However, when affective bonds do exist, it is touching to observe the dedication of some brothers and sisters.

        Tenderness, attention, dedication and renounce are some of the feelings which can come up, in a spontaneous and tender way.

        Recently, we have heard a story about a four or five year-old girl.

        Her brother, about eight, was ill, and leukemia was the diagnosis.

        Father and mother zealously cared for the boy. Exams, treatments, chemotherapy. Everything medicine can offer to someone carrying this infirmity.

        One day, the mother held the little girl on her arms and explained that her brother was going to spend some time in a hospital.

        He needed a special treatment to get better.

        She also explained that, when he got back home, she should not be surprised because, due to the treatment, he would have lost all of his hair.

        She also recommended the girl not to make any jokes about his baldness.

        The little girl heard with attention and said nothing. The mother thought that maybe she did not understand very well. However, she decided to wait.

        Some days later, the parents went to the hospital to get the boy. When the car stopped in front of the house, the little girl looked through the window and smiled.

        Her brother was back. On his head, a red cap.

        She ran into the bathroom, got a pair of scissors and executed what she had been planning, since the conversation with her mother.

        Soon after, she was leaping down the stairs. She opened the door as her brother was arriving close to the porch of the house.

        Then, she looked at him for a moment, as if to be sure he was really bald.

        She then stretched her little hands full of he own hair, offering it to him.

        He looked at her and saw that her hair was all messy, showing that it had been cut, the way she could, with her little hands.

        One side was shorter than the other, her fringe looked like the steps of a badly built stairs.

        She said nothing. Neither did he. Father and mother, standing behind him, watched everything surprised.

        The boy got the hair his sister offered him, and, smiling, took his cap and put it in her head.

        He then knelled and they hugged each other.

        Fraternal love is the most fundamental kind of love. It is the one that gives ground to all forms of love.

        By fraternal love, we understand the feeling of responsibility, of care, respect to each other, self-awareness, the wish to do better in life.

        From home, fraternal love transcends to other human beings.

        If we develop our capacity of loving our brother of blood, we cannot avoid loving our other brothers.

        Fraternal love is love amongst equals. Equals because we are all Spirits, sons and daughters of the same Father.

        Equals on Earth, because we all are in our human condition.

        If we think about our talent, intelligence, knowledge differences we will see they are quite small compared to our essential identity, common to all of us.

* * *

        Love is man’s active endurance. Endurance that bursts the walls which separate it from its fellows.

        Love unites us in a bond of love, which stimulates the offering of oneself, in an extraordinary experience of vitality and joy.

Spiritist  Moment Team, from the video Gesto de amor,  by unknown writer, and from chapter 2 of the book A arte de amar, by Erich Fromm. Publishing House: Itatiaia.