Love without conditions

Is there unconditional love on this planet today?

I guess to discuss this, one must decide about conditional love. Conditional love is a polarized emotion, meaning that it has an opposite emotion. The opposite extreme of love is hatred. Conditional love comes from ego and generally focuses on someone (like a romantic partner, child, parent, friend) or some thing (like a house, a car, or a job). When we love someone conditionally, we tend to want them to look, act, and think in ways that fit our own paradigms and expectations. We hold others accountable to our expectations in order to qualify for our affection. If they act the way we want them to, we express our approval; if they act contrary to our wishes, we withhold our expression of acceptance of them, usually in some form of anger. Conditional love polarizes our internal thought process to believe, “I am right, and you are wrong, so I think you should see things my way.”

Conditional love appears everywhere on the planet, does it not?

But unconditional love?

Unconditional love is neutral. The source of unconditional love is the Holy Spirit; therefore it is available to everyone without discernment, and there is absolutely nothing we need to do to qualify for it. It just is, like rain from dark clouds and heat from a cloudless summer sky in Louisiana. Unconditional love comes through to us at a soul level, beginning at the level of self-acceptance and self-forgiveness, and radiates divine light to everyone and everything. When we make a conscious decision to choose thoughts based on unconditional love, it does not mean that we agree with everyone and everything. It means that we consciously commit ourselves to expressing respect, kindness, and cooperation to everyone and everything in our environment.

Which brings me to the story of the day.

Back in October, Seminole County Animal Services in Florida found a 2-year-old Dachshund protecting a 7-month-old paraplegic kitten by a gated driveway. The Doxie, later named Idgie, was guarding the cat, Ruth - barking and growling if someone came close. Ruth can only move by dragging herself with her front legs. "Both of them were found in fairly good shape, not filthy or malnourished, so it seems as though they probably had a home at some point," said the shelter's Diane Gagliano.

Wait, what? Did you get that? Dog ... cat. Dog ....paralyzed cat.

Love. Protection. Survival.

Un-condition-al love.

Jacqueline Borum, who runs a spa nearby the shelter, adopted the duo and is keeping them at the business where "everyone can enjoy them and take care of them," she said. "They are so special!" Borum named the pair after the loyal friends in "Fried Green Tomatoes."

We have the capability in us to do something similar. We, just, don't. We could. We don't. Remember, the two weren's filthy, weren't malnourished, probably had a home. But the cat couldn't have made it to where they were by herself, so the owner had to have put them out at some point, and the owner didn't come looking for them.

Conditional love at its worst.