I tweeted today: To love unconditionally you must release judgment… to be loved unconditionally you must release judgment.

Many of the responses were, “True and yet so hard to do.”

Loving unconditionally whether it is ourselves or another, can be a challenge. And yet isn’t that what we all want? To be loved unconditionally?

There are times when I fall short of extending unconditional love jumping to  judgement too quickly. When I catch it I always explore what belief is connected to the judgement to see if there is some  re-engineering work that needs to be done.

I find it interesting how we can love our pets so unconditionally and yet struggle to love ourselves and others in the same way. 

Our pets can chew up our favorite pair of shoes, scratch the upholstery on the brand new sofa, pee stain the oriental rug and tear apart the pages of a work report and while we may be quick to anger, the anger is followed by a softening.

We soften in our being towards our mischievous pets because we receive unconditional love from them. We are secure in their love. We know their love will not wane or falter. And because of their unconditional loyalty and love towards us, we release our judgement and end up cuddling or scratching them behind the ears.

The unconditional love of a pet births inside of ourselves an unconditional love towards them even during times of bad behavior.

So what if we took that learning and applied it to our human relationships?

By showing unconditional love to others and suspending judgement surely we will receive it back in kind. It may come in small steps and those not on board with the energy of unconditional love may be filtered away from our lives. But the end result with those who hold steadfast, will be a strong bond of love that will survive any situation.

My musings this Valentine’s Day.

~Love, Esther