Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. – Oscar Wilde

This is a lovely garden. Is your heart this full of love, or is it a bit more desolate?

What does that mean?
A garden with all the flowers dead. That sounds bleak. Then add a lack of sunshine, and it becomes truly dreary. That is the closest match that the quote could find to a life without love in the heart. Given that description, it’s not something that I want to experience or live, how about you?

Looking at it from the opposite direction, a heart full of love becomes a beautiful flower garden, with everything in bloom. There are even great rays of sunshine lighting and warming things up. Compare that to the way things were described in the quote, and chose how you would like to live.

Did you chose a life with love in your heart? I hope so! But why warn us about this situation of hearts without love? Then as now, there are people who live without this sunshine, who live in a garden full of dead flowers. This quote is meant to awaken us to the possibility of more in our lives, if only we pay heed to it.

Why is optimism important?  
To me, sunshine and blooming flowers are all about optimism. They are symbols of what grows, what lives, and how vibrant life can be. It’s about the seeds that will come from the flower, and therefore, the next generation of flowers. It is about life, and the love of life.

Optimism is looking at a garden and seeing the flowers that are blooming, and not focusing on last week’s flowers. Last week’s flowers are done being pretty, and are busy making seeds. But if you didn’t know better, and focused on all the dead and dying flowers, it would be hard to be optimistic, and the love in your heart just might be a little less vibrant, right?

That is why we need to focus on the sunshine, the flowers, and the love, and keep them in our hearts. Together, they reinforce, and are in turn reinforced, by our optimism. With all of it taken to gether, it can be a tough combination to stop.

Where can I apply this in my life?
To me, this is a neat expression, because it can be used pretty much anywhere in your life. Anywhere that a ray of sunshine might help. Anywhere a flower might brighten your day. Anywhere a little extra love in your heart might be nice to have.

Where in your life are there clouds? Where is it gloomy? Where is it dark or cold? These are the places where a little sun would be handy. This is where optimism can be very helpful. If things aren’t going as you hoped, and the little thunder clouds are circling your head, some optimism could well be the ray of sunshine to end the downpour.

Consider what you could be optimistic about? Did you learn from your last attempt, the one that landed you in this less-than-sunny place? Is there a possibility that you could try a different way? Can you think of someone to call for a life-line? Even of it’s just a gut check that says “I’m going to keep on smiling despite the odds,” optimism really helps.

Where in your life could you use a little beauty, a little color, a little flower (real or metaphorical)? This is another way to remind yourself to be optimistic, that beauty still exists in your world. Even if you are allergic, you can always make origami flowers, or pictures, right?

Finally, where in your life could you use a little love? If you’re feeling down, you could probably use some self love. How’s that for optimism? Give yourself a hug, and remember all the other times things went less-than-great in your life, yet still turned out OK.

Love in your heart doesn’t stay hidden. It radiates out of you in a way that everyone can see. You’ve seen these people, even if you don’t know any personally. You’ve probably been one, even if only for a brief moment, right? Pretty much everyone does from time to time.

Whether you’re doing things you love or hate, keep love in your heart. Otherwise all you are doing is toiling in a cold, dead, sunless garden, and that’s not any fun, is it? But a slight change in attitude will make a great difference to your life. I would urge you to try it, you might like it.

Keep love in your heart. Not because things are going well. Not because things aren’t going as well as you’d like. But because it is the best thing to do for yourself and for others. And because yours may be the garden on the other side of the fence that inspires your neighbor.

From: Twitter, @myvintagevogue
confirmed at : http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/o/oscarwilde121811.html
Photo by Coy!