Once while watching a cat I learned a valuable lesson on how to express love. Some friends of mine, who were professional cat breeders, had among their many cats one that was extremely unfriendly and nasty to all the other cats. One day a new cat arrived on the scene. She was a different breed and, by nature, extremely loving. When the unfriendly cat would growl at her, instead of cowering and being frightened like the other cats, she would go up to the unfriendly cat, ignore the growling, and nudge and kiss her. The new cat's continual custom of expressing love in this way quieted the other cat, and soon they were playing together. Shortly thereafter the supposedly mean cat was playing with all the cats. The growling had stopped, and she had a new, sweet personality.
Watching this change, I marveled at what the active expression of love can do. The new cat had refused to react to the old cat's rejection of her. She continued to express her own nature and give out the love that was natural to her. This overcame the expression of hatred.
One is apt to find in his own experience instances of unpleasantness and even of hatred being expressed toward him. These can act as obstacles to a truly harmonious and prosperous life. Anyone who is sensitive to love is obviously distressed by the appearance of hatred. The typical reaction we have when confronted with an adverse force of any kind is to react in like manner. This often makes things worse and usually doesn't solve a thing.
