whose precious diamond, I have seen.
Imagine that you've just met a beautiful girl. The two of you are attracted to each other. And you begin to see her every day. One day you notice that she's wearing a necklace with a shiny stone pendant. "What's that?" you ask. She doesn't seem to hear your question, because she keeps talking about something else.
For some reason that shiny stone sticks in your mind. The next time you see her, you say "Oh, you're wearing it again." "It's nothing," she says, and starts talking about something else. Only now the stone looks a little bigger and shinier.
Now your curiosity is piqued, so you return the next day, and the stone has gotten very large and shiny. What if it's a diamond? you think. Maybe she's wearing a diamond that's so valuable she doesn't want to tell me about it.
Can you imagine how this story will turn out? That's right, she never tells. But the diamond just keeps getting bigger and bigger in your eyes, until you are sure it must be the most precious jewel on earth. That's how attraction grows into deep love. You have to make only one little change--the diamond is inside her. You'll never see it and she will never talk about it, but when you are attracted to a girl--or when a girl is attracted to a boy--love shows you something precious you can't stop wondering about.
It's easy to be attracted to somebody; it's even easy to fall in love. But loving someone else for the spirit inside is really deeper than that: it's like finding a precious jewel that only grows more fascinating. The steps on this path are as follows:
You notice something special that catches your eye.
You become intrigued.
The thing you notice grows in your eyes.
As it grows it becomes more and more special--you begin to find it precious.
So what could this mysterious thing be that attracts you and then turns out to be a diamond? Everyone could come up with an answer but the following three virtues are top among them:
KINDNESS
There is something incredibly touching when you find a kind person. Kindness comes so naturally to them that they don't notice it, because they aren't trying to be kind. You know what it's like to force yourself to "do the right thing" when you don't want to. Kindness doesn't come easily, but when it does, the person whose heart is naturally kind is able to fascinate me year after year. My love never grows old. Kindness can also be called courtesy of the heart.
COMPASSION
Compassion is kindness carried a step further. That makes it even more rare. Compassion is shown by selfless acts of kindness. Compassionate people are always thinking about the welfare of others that they forget to count themselves. In today's society, forgetting to count yourself can make you seem foolish or naive, but to me it's one of the most lovable qualities anyone can possess.
PEACE
This is another rare quality to find, because most people are at peace only when their surroundings are peaceful. It's not hard to be at peace when you come from a happy, contented home and have happy and contented friends. But some wise people can be at peace anywhere, even on a battlefield. The reason wisdom and peace go together is that you have to look deep to get past all the reasons for not being peaceful. These reasons are everywhere. People feel angry or afraid, they worry that things will fall apart or they worry that things have already fallen apart--the list never ends. But there is only one reason to be at peace, and that's because your soul is. Peaceful people seem to show you their soul, and that makes them fascinating without end.
I could add a lot more virtuous qualities to this list. I've been attracted to people because they are courageous or completely honest or truly wise about human nature, or they just have a joyful something in their eyes. Find the hidden jewel in every person and keep noticing it every day. I promise that it will become the most precious diamond on earth.
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