This is Thanksgiving week in the US. I love this holiday because it’s a reminder of all the abundance we experience every day. But instead of focusing on gratitude for this episode, I want to focus on love.
We have many false concepts about love, concepts handed down to us from others and “affirmed” by our life experience. The ego would have us believe that love comes from others as if it’s outside of ourselves. Many of us grew up believing that love is conditional and is something we need to earn.
If we believe love is something we have to earn, there’s an inherent assumption it can also be lost, withheld, or taken away when we don’t perform or measure up.
And if we believe that we only receive love after doing something “worthy,” there will always be an element of questioning our own worth, which can easily lead to a sense of not-enoughness hanging over us.
Friend, that is not love.
Love just is — it’s all around you.
Love is there whether you accept it or not. It is unchanging and is always available to you.
Why does having an improved concept of love matter anyway?
Because living in the reality of love as an ever-present force brings peace to the self. When you embrace that love simply is, that it doesn’t have to be earned, you can begin accepting yourself as you are. And when you accept yourself as you are, it’s much easier to accept others as they are. This is the personal freedom we all seek.
See how beautiful and contagious can this be?
If love could speak for itself, what would it say? If Love could sit down with you at your kitchen table, what message would it bring?
Maybe the message would look like this:
Stop it already. You are enough. Give up trying to win love. You already have it. Just be.
Love — or better said, the seeking of it — is behind every intention, every behavior. (This might be difficult to believe at first glance, but dig a little deeper, and you’ll see that it’s true.)
Look beyond your perceived limitations. You are capable of anything you want to achieve.
Love is always present.
Love does not judge.
Love is patient.
The way things are right now is just fine. Things don’t need to be “perfect.”
Your children are perfect the way they are. Just love them.
Perhaps my husband, Ron, said it best when he told me that he loves me like the dog. I know. My first reaction was “WTF?”. Then he explained.
“The dog is flawed, and I love him anyway.”
The dog drives him crazy at times, and Ron loves him anyway.
The dog is imperfect, and Ron loves him anyway.
The dog doesn’t have to earn Ron’s love. And neither do I.
Ron loves me like the dog because, as I said earlier — love just is.
Happy Thanksgiving, with much love.
Thanks for listening!
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