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January 7, 2021

I Learned what Unconditional Love is (& is Not) the Hard Way.

A Lesson from Little Miss Luna (the Cat).

2020 was for lessons.

Last month, I had to find a new home for a dear friend. And despite experiencing several losses in my life, this one cut the deepest. Like an unexpected knife to the heart, I sit in the feeling of heaviness and emptiness that comes from saying goodbye.

This lesson on loss has been one of significant magnitude given that this friend is a furry friend, my little Luna. 

The lesson is this:

Animals are easy to love unconditionally. They’re easy to love unconditionally because they give love unconditionally. And any relationship that harbors true unconditional love at its core is a relationship that pulsates with the very life force energy that creates worlds. 

When we love in an unconditional way, it is magic. 

When we can look in the eyes of another being and see only love, we are sitting in the heart of who we really are. We are home. 

And so, it becomes easy to think that the object of our love is the catalyst for this divine experience, the cause of it. 

Not so much.

This misunderstanding causes so much pain for so many people and is why my heart hurts as I write this.

You are love. I am love. 

Love is the essence of consciousness, and this love exists everywhere, always—all of the time. When we are in a receptive state, this love flows to us like water, and we are flooded with a feeling of peace—we come home.

Our bodies become a vessel to direct this loving energy, and it feels so good. It feels so wonderful because this is the core of who we are. This is our purpose, why we came here, and what we’re best at.

Love.

Love is not created; love is not destroyed. Love is an omnipresent and eternal expression of light that exists beyond space and time. We use matter as a tool to harness and direct it. The whole universe is an expression of love because the whole universe is consciousness experiencing itself.

The lesson is that I am love. You are love. We are love.

And when we find someone or something that ignites in us the memory of this love that we are—when we are able to freely express it with no limitations, reservations, or second guesses—we remember the totality of who we are. 

And that is the stuff of miracles.

But, remember, it is so crucial that when circumstances change (as they always do), and the object of our love is no longer in our life, to remember that it was only ever you who could cultivate that feeling. And it exists inside of you—always. It is who you really are.

Isn’t that beautiful?

My furry friend, little miss Luna, has gone to a beautiful and loving home. Sitting with this lesson, trying so hard to understand whether or not I did the right thing, I see the beauty of unconditional love.

And how by not gripping to her as a means of experiencing this love, I was able to offer her a home that is the perfect fit for her. That is the space of unconditional love.

There’s no room for selfishness because the only intent, the only wish, is for the happiness of those we care for. 

A wise teacher told me, “All beings wish to be happy. And to say I love you means I wish you to be happy.”

This rings true.

No one and nothing causes happiness. It is our hearts that alchemize the light that is love.

And when we allow ourselves to be open and receptive vessels to love, we create the conditions for happiness; and we rest in the seat of joy. 

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